Lee R. Berger

Infobox_Person
name = Lee Berger


imagesize = 10kb
caption = Lee Berger
birth_date = birth date and age|1965|12|22
birth_place = Shawnee Mission, Kansas, US
death_date =
death_place =
occupation = National Geographic Explorer and Paleoanthropologist
spouse = Jacqueline Berger
children = Megan, Matthew

Professor Lee Rogers Berger (born December 22 1965), is a paleoanthropologist, physical anthropologist and archeologist and is best known for his work on "Australopithecus africanus" body proportions and the Taung Bird of Prey Hypothesis.

He is also known for the supposed discovery of small-bodied humans in Palau, Micronesia that he found while on vacation in 2006. [cite web |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/science/11fossil.html?ref=science |title=Discovery Challenges Finding of a Separate Human Species |accessdate=2008-03-18|author=John Noble Wilford|authorlink= |coauthors= |date=2008|format= |work= |publisher=New York Times|pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] . However, scholars most familiar with human cultural and biological evolution in Palau and elsewhere in the Pacific have disputed the argument that these individuals are pygmoid in stature [ [http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080416/full/452806a.html Access : Archaeology: Bones, isles and videotape : Nature News ] ] or were the result of insular dwarfism. This is because the remains found by Berger are extremely fragmentary or embedded in flowstone, making it difficult or impossible to adequately calculate size or stature using standard statistical measurements. In addition, all other prehistoric human remains found in Palau, including nearly complete skeletons, are of normal size. One of the sites where Berger worked was also a well-known burial site for a local chief's children, suggesting that the finds might not be small-bodied humans, but juveniles instead. John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist, has countered these researchers' claims suggesting that all of the early Palauan remains found by Berger are in fact pygmoid in stature [ [http://johnhawks.net/weblog/fossils/pacific/palau-berger-faq-2008.html John Hawks Anthropology Weblog : What about Palau? ] ] .

Background

Berger was born in Shawnee Mission Kansas in 1965 but grew up in Sylvania,Georgia in the United States. He has lived in South Africa since 1989.

He graduated from Georgia Southern University in 1989 with a degree in Anthropology/Archaeology and a minor in Geology. He undertook doctoral studies in palaeo-anthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand under Professor Phillip Tobias, focusing his research on the shoulder girdle of early hominids and graduated in 1994. In 1991 he began his long term work at the Gladysvale site. This marked the same year that his team discovered the first early hominid remains from the site, making this the first new early hominid site discovered in southern Africa since 1948. In 1993 he was appointed to the position of Research Officer in PARU.

Employment History

He was promoted to a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Research Officer at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1995. He has served in the position of Leader of the Palaeoanthropology Research Group, and has taken charge of fossil hominin excavations including Sterkfontein, Swartkrans and Gladysvale. In 2004 he was promoted ad hominin to Reader in Human Evolution and the Public Understanding of Science.

Awards

In 1997 he was appointed to an adjunct Professorial position in the Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy at Duke University in Durham North Carolina and the following year as an Honorary Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the on limb lengths in Australopithecus africanus.

He is a National Press Photographers Association Humaniterian Award winner in 1987 for throwing his camera down while working as a news photographer for television station for saving a life in 1987. [cite web |url=http://www.profleeberger.com/files/cv_2007.pdf |title=Biographical Sketch of Prof. Lee R. Berger |accessdate=2007-07-11 |date=2007 |publisher=Prof. Lee R. Berger]

Research and other activities

During his career he has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator on extensive grants, including grants from the National Geographic Society, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Palaeo-Anthropological Scientific Trust. He served as Executive Officer of the Palaeo-Anthropological Scientific Trust from 1994 - 2001 and now acts as scientific advisor to the Trust, he was a founding Trustee of the Jane Goodall Trust South Africa and served on the Committee for successful application for World Heritage Site Status for the UNESCO Sterkfontein, Swartkans, Kromdraai and Environs site. He also served on the committee for application of the Makapansgat and Taung sites for World Heritiage site status and Makapansgat site development committee. He also served on the committee of the Royal Society of South Africa, Northern Branch between 1996 and 1998 and served as Secretary in 1996 and 1997. He served on the Fulbright Commission, South Africa and was Chair of the Program Review Committee from 2002 - 2004 and was Chairman for 2005.

He has published in most major journals in the field including the "Journal of Human Evolution", the "American Journal of Physical Anthropology" and "Nature" and his research has stimulated debate and review in both "Nature" and "Science" [cite web |url=http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol311/issue5760/r-samples.dtl |title=News in Science |accessdate=2007-08-02|author= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date=2006 |format= |work= |publisher=Science|pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] . He has over 50 refereed publications, 21 books or theses, and over 70 other publications to his name.

His present research activities include involvement as PI, Co-PI or senior collaborator on numerous excavations and exploratory projects around southern Africa including the following:

*Survey of Botswana and South Africa for the National Geographic Society
*Kwando, Botswana megafauna study
*Drimolin cave excavations
*Gladysvale cave excavations (in collaboration with the University of Zurich)
* Coopers cave excavations
*Motsetsi cave excavations
*Plovers Lake excavations
*Bolts farm excavations (in collaboration with the University of Pretoria and the Transvaal Mus.)
*Taphonomic studies within the John Nash Nature Reserve
*Kromdraai cave excavations (in collaboration with the Transvaal Museum)
*Hoedjiespunt excavations (in collaboration with the University of Cape Town)
*Free State survey (in collaboration with the National Museum Bloemfontein, Duke University and the University of Arkansas)
*Palau, Micronesia [Cite journal
author = Lee R. Berger, Steven E. Churchill, Bonita De Klerk, Rhonda L. Quinn
title = Small-Bodied Humans from Palau, Micronesia
journal = PLoS ONE
year = 2008
month = March
volume = 3
issue = 3
pages = e1780
doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0001780]
*Survey of Zimbabwe.

elected Publications

*Over one hundred scientific and popular articles including several books

*"Redrawing the family tree?" (National Geographic Press, 1998)
*"Visions of the Past" (Vision. End. Wild. Trust, 1999)
*"Towards Gondwana Alive: promoting biodiversity and stemming the sixth extinction" (Gondwana Alive Soc. Press, 1999)
*"In The Footsteps of Eve" (with Brett Hilton-Barber)(National Geographic,2001)
* "The Official Field Guide to the Cradle of Humankind" (with Brett Hilton-Barber)(Struik, 2002)
*"Change Starts in Africa" ( in South Africa the Good News)(S.A. Good News Publishing, 2002)
*" [http://www.exploringkruger.com | Exploring Kruger] " (with Brett Hilton-Barber) (Prime Origins Publishing, 2004)
*"Working and Guiding in the Cradle of Humankind" (Prime Origins Publishing and The South African National Lottery, 2005)
*"A Guide to Sterkfontein – the Cradle of Humankind" (with Brett Hilton-Barber) (Struik, 2006)
*"The Concise Guide to Kruger" (Struik, 2007)

ee also

Footprints of Eve

References

*Portions of this Article were based on Lee Berger's Published [http://www.profleeberger.com/files/cv_2007.pdf| Curriculum Vitae]
*"In The Footsteps of Eve" (with Brett Hilton-Barber)(National Geographic,2001)

External links

* [http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/outpost/ National Geographic Outpost]
* [http://www.profleeberger.com Lee Berger's website]
* [http://www.fossilhunter.com Fossil Hunter Television Series] .