Renowned Anthropologist and Stony Brook Faculty, Richard Leakey, Elected Fellow of the Royal Society

STONY BROOK, NY — On 17 May 2007, The Royal Society elected forty-four new Fellows and eight Foreign Members from the fields of science, engineering and technology for their exceptional contributions to society. Richard Leakey, the world-renowned conservationist and paleo-anthropologist who has been a member of the faculty at Stony Brook University since 2002, was one of the fellows elected to the highly prestigious Fellowship.

The Royal Society is the independent scientific academy of the UK and the Commonwealth dedicated to promoting excellence in science. It plays an influential role in national and international science policy and supports developments in science engineering and technology in a wide range of ways. As a Fellow, Leakey joins the likes of David Attenborough and Stephen Hawking.

Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society, said: “These Fellows are at the cutting edge of science in the UK and beyond. Their achievements represent the enormous contribution science makes to society.”

“Richard Leakey has earned a rightful place among the pantheon of the world’s foremost anthropologists. Indeed, his work has left and will continue to have an indelible impact on our understanding of human evolution,” said Stony Brook President Dr. Shirley Strum Kenny. “We at Stony Brook are privileged to count him among our faculty, and congratulate him on this latest well-deserved honor.”

Leakey, former director of the National Museums of Kenya and the Kenya Wildlife Service, is currently spearheading the development of the Turkana Basin Institute, a collaboration between Stony Brook University, the U.S. International University in Kenya and the University of Nairobi. The $25 million state-of-the-art research center will comprise a series of three field stations, consisting of both laboratories and hotel-style living quarters, making it possible for teams of researchers to simply travel to the site without making complicated, expensive, and time-consuming arrangements.

Leakey has served as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook since 2002. In this capacity, he has established the Stony Brook World Environmental Forum to focus scientific attention on the urgent problems impacting the global environment, and to mobilize the resources of inter-government agencies and international corporations for conservation. He also established the Annual Human Evolution Symposium, bringing together international scientists from many disciplines to try and obtain a clearer appreciation and understanding of the major forces and events that shaped the root of the human lineage.

This year’s 4th Annual Human Evolution Symposium will be held on Tuesday, September 25. Critical questions will be addressed by the world’s leading anthropologists and other scholars on the “Diversity in Australopithecus: Tracking the Early Bipeds.” The all-day symposium is open to the public. For complete ticket pricing, including student discounts, and additional information, please visit http://www.stonybrook.edu/sb/humanevolution/ or call (631) 632-5800.