Findlay, Ohio, Oct. 30, 2003 — Paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Louise Leakey, Ph.D., will be the featured speaker for The University of Findlay’s Academic Excellence Day Wednesday, Nov. 5, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Malcolm Athletic Center, Koehler Fitness and Recreation Complex.

Leakey’s presentation, titled “Passion for Discovery: Continuing the Family Tradition” will be held from 9 to 10:15 a.m.

Born in Kenya, Louise Leakey has upheld the family legacy in the field of paleoanthropology. Daughter of renowned paleoanthropologists Meave and Richard Leakey, she has spent considerable time on field expeditions, having first set foot on the Turkana Basin site when she was just two months old.

A recent Ph.D. graduate of The University of London, Leakey now leads the annual expeditions to the Turkana Basin with her mother, Meave Leakey. There she focuses her research on the influence of changing climate on the evolution of indigenous animals between 3.3 and 1.6 million years ago.

On March 19, 2001, Leakey and a group of scientists led by her mother unearthed a 3.5 million-year-old skull and partial jaw said to belong to a branch of the early human family. This well-publicized fossil was named Kenyanthropus platyops, or flat-faced man of Kenya. This discovery, announced in the journal Nature, has profound implications on the understanding of the origins of mankind. In a front page story on March 22, 2001, The New York Times wrote that the discovery “threatens to overturn the prevailing view that a single line of descent stretched through the early stages of human ancestry.”

Currently, Leakey is developing a long-term research initiative at Koobi Fora, East Turkana, where her concern for the welfare of the surrounding peoples has led her to generate increased funding for the local school and medical center.

Among her other pursuits, Leakey occasionally works as a guide for palaeontological excursions and horse riding safaris in Kenya. She manages the Leakey family vineyard, is on the advisory board of Sea Shepherd Conservation International and is a pilot of light aircraft. An avid photographer, she recently published some of her photos in the book Africa’s Children as part of a charitable project for education.

The goal of Academic Excellence Day is to showcase the academic excellence of students and faculty across campus. A total of 40 different presentations will be given in four sessions throughout the day. Session one runs from 10:30 to 10:50 a.m., session two runs from 11 to 11:20 a.m., session three is from 12:10 to 12:30 p.m., and session four is from 12:40 to 1 p.m. Booths will be set up in the Malcolm Athletic Center, and students and faculty will move from booth to booth as the presentations are given. Classes until 2 p.m. on that day are canceled in order to give all students and faculty members the opportunity to attend. From 1:10 to 1:30 p.m., the theatre program will give a mini-presentation of the upcoming show Moreau.

The event is sponsored by the Honors Program at UF.