The mission of The Leakey Foundation is to increase scientific knowledge, education, and public understanding of human origins, evolution, behavior, and survival.
The Leakey Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and sharing the results of this research through innovative educational programs.
We are based in San Francisco, California, and we are the only American funding organization wholly committed to human origins research and education.
The Leakey Foundation promotes a multidisciplinary approach to exploring human origins. We award more than $1,00,000 annually in grants for vital new research and long-term projects.
We give special encouragement to early-career scientists asking new questions and finding innovative ways to learn about human evolution. We also provide funding for graduate students from countries with limited academic opportunities to earn advanced degrees in fields like genetics, paleoanthropology, and primatology.
The Foundation was originally formed in 1968 to support the work of Dr. Louis S.B. Leakey who was a pioneering scientist and a passionate advocate of science outreach. In keeping with Louis Leakey’s philosophies, we recognize that science is stimulated and advanced by education and public outreach. Our commitment to these ideals is reflected in our outreach and educational programs that are designed to give the public the opportunity to learn first-hand about scientific advances.
History
Dr. Louis S. B. Leakey was one of the 20th century’s great anthropologists and a tireless promoter of science education and public outreach. During Dr. Leakey’s travels to the United States in the 1960s to lecture and raise money for his research, he met a group of enthusiastic individuals who were curious about human origins and evolution. Inspired by Dr. Leakey and his ideas, they started a collective to promote a multidisciplinary approach to human origins research. In 1968, they formed The Leakey Foundation to support Louis and Mary Leakey’s fieldwork and the groundbreaking research of young scientists such as Jane Goodall, Don Johanson, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas.
In its first decade of existence, The Leakey Foundation provided funding many of the seminal studies that inform our understanding of human prehistory. Today The Leakey Foundation continues to support the significant studies of researchers such as Zeresenay Alemseged, Jill Pruetz, Dan Lieberman, Frederick Grine, Sileshi Semaw, and many more. Many of today’s prominent human origins researchers got their start with a grant from The Leakey Foundation.
Education and public outreach played a large part in the formation of The Leakey Foundation. What began as a way to support Louis and Mary Leakey’s research has expanded over the years to include numerous programs. For 50 years, the Annual Speaker Series on Human Origins has provided opportunities to learn first-hand about cutting edge research from leading scientists in the field. In recent years, The Leakey Foundation has broadened its reach by developing new programs such as the Origin Stories podcast, our YouTube channel, and a large online and social media presence.
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