Professor Lee Berger and his son stumble across an amazing find at Malapa in South Africa - two-million-year-old fossils of an unknown part ape, part human species."
Bio
Lee Berger
Prof. Lee R Berger is the Reader in Human Evolution and the Public
Understanding of Science in the Institute for Human Evolution, School of
Geosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South
Africa. He discovered the site of Malapa in 2008, and, with his son
Matthew, is the discoverer of the new species of early human ancestor Australopithecus sediba. He also discovered the female skeleton MH-2, the most complete early hominin skeleton yet discovered.
He is recognised as an international explorer with over 20 years of
expedition leadership to his credit. He is the Director and Principle
Investigator of the Malapa Project and leads over 70 scientists in what
has been described as one of the largest palaeontological projects in
recent history.
Berger, an award-winning researcher, author and speaker, is the
recipient of the Friedel Sellschop Award for Young Researchers and the
National Geographic Society’s first Prize for Research and Exploration.
His work has featured as Discover’s and Time Magazinestop
100 Science Stories of the year on several occasions. He has written
numerous books and over 75 academic articles. He has appeared in dozens
of television documentaries and is a regular commentator on evolution
and palaeontology. An acclaimed speaker, he has delivered invited
lectures to hundreds of corporate, government and other prestigious
organisations, including the World Summit for Sustainable Development,
the Royal Geographic Society, the Time Fortune CNN Global Forum, the
Young Presidents Organisation and the National Geographic Society.
He graduated from Georgia Southern University in 1989 and received
his PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1994. Lee is an
Eagle Scout, and Boy Scout Honor Medal winner. He is an avid diver and
PADI Divemaster.