Dr. Lee R. Berger

Lee R. Berger became associated with Dr. Bishop as a Georgia Southern College (1989) student. During a “Field Paleontology of the Black Hills” class, led by Gale and Austin B. Williams, Lee had shared that, “What I really want to do is study fossil hominins.” Gale and Austin responded, “Then JUST DO IT!” This helped launch Dr. Berger on a career trajectory that has yielded some of the most significant anthropological discoveries in history.

Today, Lee Berger is best known as an award-winning researcher and paleoanthropologist. His explorations into human origins in Africa over the past 25 years have resulted in the discovery of more individual fossil hominin remains than any other exploration program in the history of the search for human origins in Africa. Among Berger’s many notable finds, the discoveries of two new species of ancient human relatives are especially noteworthy. In 2008 he found Australopithecus sediba, fossil remains of remarkable completeness that showed an intriguing mix of apelike and humanlike characteristics. In 2013 his team found another new species of ancient human relative, Homo naledi, amid the richest early hominin site yet found in Africa.

A current National Geographic Explorer at Large, Berger won the first National Geographic Society Research and Exploration Prize in 1997. In 2016, he was named the Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year and included in Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 Most Influential People.