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Lee Rogers Berger (born December 22, 1965) is an American-born South African
paleoanthropologist Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and biological anthropology, anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as wikt:hominization, hominization, throug ...
and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. He is best known for his discovery of the ''
Australopithecus sediba ''Australopithecus sediba'' is an extinct species of australopithecine recovered from Malapa Fossil Site, Cradle of Humankind, Malapa Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. It is known from a partial juvenile skeleton, the holotype MH1, and a ...
'' type site,
Malapa Malapa is a fossil-bearing cave located about northeast of the well known South African hominid-bearing sites of Sterkfontein and Swartkrans and about north-northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is situated within the Cradle of Humanki ...
; his leadership of Rising Star Expedition in the excavation of ''
Homo naledi '' Homo naledi'' is an Extinction, extinct species of archaic human discovered in 2013 in the Rising Star Cave system, Gauteng province, South Africa, part of the Cradle of Humankind, dating back to the Middle Pleistocene 335,000–236,000 yea ...
'' at
Rising Star Cave The Rising Star cave system (also known as Westminster or Empire cave) is located in the Malmani Subgroup, Malmani dolomites, in Bloubank River valley, about southwest of Swartkrans, part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in Sout ...
; and the Taung Bird of Prey Hypothesis. Berger is known not only for his discoveries, but also for his unusually public persona in paleoanthropology, and for making his most notable discoveries
open-access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...
projects. He gives hundreds of talks per year, and has had a close relationship with
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...
for many years, appearing in several of their shows and documentaries.


Early life and education

Berger was born in Shawnee Mission,
Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
in 1965, but was raised outside of Sylvania,
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
in the United States. As a youth, Berger was active in the Boy Scouts,
Future Farmers of America The National FFA Organization or FFA is an American nonprofit career and technical student organization, which offers middle and high school classes that promote and support agricultural education. Future Farmers of Virginia (FFV) was founded in ...
, and president of
Georgia 4-H Georgia 4-H was founded in 1904 by G.C. Adams in Newton County, Georgia, Newton County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States, as the Girls Canning, and Boys Corn Clubs. The Georgia 4-H Program is a branch of Cooperative extension service, ...
. In 1984, Berger was named Georgia's Youth Conservationist of the Year for his work in conserving the threatened
gopher tortoise The gopher tortoise (''Gopherus polyphemus'') is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is native to the southeastern United States. The gopher tortoise is seen as a keystone species because it digs burrows that provide she ...
. He is a Distinguished
Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of Scouting America. Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Scout rank has been earned by over ...
, and received the
Boy Scouts of America Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...
Honor Medal for saving a life in 1987. He graduated from
Georgia Southern University Georgia Southern University (informally known as Southern or Georgia Southern) is a public university, public research university in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The largest campus is in Statesboro, Georgia, Statesboro, with ...
in 1989 with a degree in
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
/
archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
and a minor in
geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...
. He undertook doctoral studies in
palaeoanthropology Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinshi ...
at the
University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...
(Wits) in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
under Professor Phillip Tobias, focusing his research on the shoulder girdle of early hominins; he 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 hominin remains from the site, making Gladysvale the first new early hominin site to be discovered in South Africa since 1948. In 1993, he was appointed to the position of research officer in the Paleo-Anthropology Research Unit (PARU) (now the Evolutionary Sciences Institute; ESI) at Wits.


Research career

He became a postdoctoral research fellow and research officer at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1995. He has been the leader of the Palaeoanthropology Research Group and has taken charge of fossil
hominin The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the genus '' Gorilla'' ( gorillas) ...
excavations, including
Sterkfontein Sterkfontein (Afrikaans for ''Strong Spring'') is a set of limestone caves of special interest in paleoanthropology located in Gauteng province, about northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa in the Muldersdrift area close to the town of K ...
,
Swartkrans Swartkrans or Swartkranz is a fossil-bearing cave designated as a National heritage sites (South Africa), South African National Heritage Site, located about from Johannesburg. It is located in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and is ...
, and Gladysvale. In 2004, he was promoted to Reader in
Human Evolution ''Homo sapiens'' is a distinct species of the hominid family of primates, which also includes all the great apes. Over their evolutionary history, humans gradually developed traits such as Human skeletal changes due to bipedalism, bipedalism, de ...
and the Public Understanding of
Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
. He is presently a research professor in the same topic at the Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI) and the Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (CoE Pal) at Wits.


Research and other activities


Organizational offices

Berger served as Executive Officer of the Palaeo-Anthropological Scientific Trust (PAST) (now the Palaeontological Scientific Trust; PAST) from 1994 to 2001. Berger served on the committee for successful application for World Heritage Site Status for the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
Sterkfontein, Swartkans,
Kromdraai Kromdraai Conservancy is a protected conservation park located to the south-west of Gauteng province in north-east South Africa. It is in the Muldersdrift area not far from Krugersdorp. Etymology Its name is derived from Afrikaans meaning "Cr ...
, and Environs site. He also served on the
Makapansgat Makapansgat () (or Makapan Valley World Heritage Site) is an archaeological location within the Makapansgat and Zwartkrans Valleys, northeast of Mokopane in Limpopo province, South Africa. It is an important palaeontological site, with the loca ...
site development committee, as well as the committee for both
Makapansgat Makapansgat () (or Makapan Valley World Heritage Site) is an archaeological location within the Makapansgat and Zwartkrans Valleys, northeast of Mokopane in Limpopo province, South Africa. It is an important palaeontological site, with the loca ...
and
Taung Taung is a small town situated in the North West Province of South Africa. The name means ''place of the lion'' and was named after Tau, the King of the Barolong people. ''Tau'' is the Tswana word for lion. Taung skull fossil site In 1924, a sk ...
's application for World Heritage site status. He was also a founding Trustee of the
Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall; 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English zoologist, Primatology, primatologist and Anthropology, anthropologist. She is considered the world's foremo ...
Trust South Africa. Berger served with the Royal Society of South Africa, Northern Branch, between 1996 and 1998, and served as Secretary in 1996 and 1997. He also served on the Fulbright Commission, South Africa, chairing it in 2005, and chairing its Program Review Committee from 2002 to 2004. Berger is a Fellow of the
Royal Society of South Africa The Royal Society of South Africa is a learned society composed of eminent South African scientists and academics. The society was granted its royal charter by King Edward VII in 1908, nearly a century after Capetonians first began to conceive of ...
and serves on the Senior Advisory Board of the
Global Young Academy The Global Young Academy (GYA) is an international society of young scientists, aiming to give a voice to young scientists across the globe.... Membership strength is capped at 200, and the membership tenure is 5 years. Organization and member ...
. In 1997 he was appointed to an adjunct professorial position in the Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy at
Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
in Durham
North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
and the following year as an honorary assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the
University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...
.


Specific study results


Palau fossils

Berger was lead author of a controversial report of the discovery in 2006 of what he and colleagues claimed were small-bodied humans in
Palau Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean. The Republic of Palau consists of approximately 340 islands and is the western part of the Caroline Islands ...
,
Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Poly ...
. Scholars have disputed the argument that these individuals are pygmoid in stature, or that they were the result of insular dwarfism; in an article titled "Small Scattered Fragments Do Not a Dwarf Make", anthropologists Scott M. Fitzpatrick (
NC State North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina sy ...
), Greg C. Nelson (
University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...
), and Geoffrey Clark (
Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...
) conclude that " ehistoric Palauan populations were normal-sized and exhibit traits that fall within the normal variation for ''Homo sapiens''," hence, concluding that their evidence did "not support the claims by Berger et al. (2008) that there were smaller-bodied populations living in Palau or that insular dwarfism took place" Berger and co-authors Churchill and De Klerk replied to the study, saying "the logical flaws and misrepresentations in Fitzpatrick and coworker's paper are too numerous to discuss in detail" and that their restudy report "amounts to a vacuous
argument from authority An argument from authority is a form of argument in which the opinion of an authority figure (or figures) who lacks relevant expertise is used as evidence to support an argument. The argument from authority is an informal fallacy, and obtaining ...
... and ''ad hominem'' assault, and brings little new data to bear on the question of body size and skeletal morphology in early Palauans". John Hawks, the paleoanthropologist who edited the original Palau article for '' PLoS ONE'', has replied in part to some of the dissenting researchers' claims (in his personal web blog).


Discovery of ''Australopithecus sediba''

In August 2008, Berger's 9-year-old son Matthew found a
clavicle The clavicle, collarbone, or keybone is a slender, S-shaped long bone approximately long that serves as a strut between the scapula, shoulder blade and the sternum (breastbone). There are two clavicles, one on each side of the body. The clavic ...
and a jawbone embedded in a rock near Malapa Cave in South Africa. Subsequent excavation, headed by Berger, led to the discovery of numerous bones nearby that dated back nearly two million years. Along with various co-authors, Berger published a series of articles between 2010 and 2013 in the journal ''
Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
'' that describe what they call a new species, ''
Australopithecus sediba ''Australopithecus sediba'' is an extinct species of australopithecine recovered from Malapa Fossil Site, Cradle of Humankind, Malapa Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. It is known from a partial juvenile skeleton, the holotype MH1, and a ...
'', which had a mixture of primitive and modern characteristics. The finding was particularly promising because it potentially revealed a previously unknown transitional species between the more ape-like australopithecines and the more human-like ''
Homo habilis ''Homo habilis'' ( 'handy man') is an extinct species of archaic human from the Early Pleistocene of East and South Africa about 2.4 million years ago to 1.65 million years ago ( mya). Upon species description in 1964, ''H. habilis'' was highly ...
''. Berger claimed that this new finding represented "the most probable ancestor" of modern-day ''
Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...
''. His work at the Malapa site was significant not only because of the discovery itself, but also because of the way he and his collaborators shared information about their findings. While most paleoanthropological investigations are known for a high level of secrecy, he worked to make the ''sediba'' site an
open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...
project. In addition to sharing digital data, he made the fossils found available on request to researchers wanting to study them themselves.


Discovery of ''Homo naledi''

On September 13, 2013, two recreational cavers, Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker, discovered a previously unknown, remote chamber within the well known
Rising Star cave system The Rising Star cave system (also known as Westminster or Empire cave) is located in the Malmani dolomites, in Bloubank River valley, about southwest of Swartkrans, part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa. Recreat ...
. Discovering the floor of this chamber (now known as the Dinaledi Chamber or UW-101) littered with human-like bones, the pair reported their finds to a colleague, who in turn brought them to the attention of Berger. Recognizing their importance, and unable to access the chamber himself due to his size, Berger organized an expedition over social media that brought six qualified researchers in from around the world to commence an excavation of the remains in November 2013. An early career workshop was organized in May 2014 that brought together 54 local and international scientists to describe and study the more than 1,550 fossils recovered. In September 2015, the team announced ''
Homo naledi '' Homo naledi'' is an Extinction, extinct species of archaic human discovered in 2013 in the Rising Star Cave system, Gauteng province, South Africa, part of the Cradle of Humankind, dating back to the Middle Pleistocene 335,000–236,000 yea ...
'' as a new
hominin The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the genus '' Gorilla'' ( gorillas) ...
species, citing its unique mosaic of more ancestral and human-like traits. Other fossil bearing localities in the system were given the site numbers 102 to 104, though research regarding them has not yet been published. On June 4, 2023, an article discussing the Dinaledi subchamber excavations and definitively citing "rock engravings made by ''Homo naledi…''" was uploaded to the open-access preprint repository
bioRxiv bioRxiv (pronounced "bio-archive") is an open access preprint repository for the biological sciences co-founded by John Inglis and Richard Sever in November 2013. It was hosted by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) until March 11, 2025, whe ...
, with Berger cited as lead author. The next day, he publicly announced new findings and two further publications regarding the excavations, during a memorial conference hosted by
Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...
in honor of Kenyan paleoanthropologist
Richard Leakey Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (19 December 1944 – 2 January 2022) was a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician. Leakey held a number of official positions in Kenya, mostly in institutions of archaeology and wildlife cons ...
, who died in January 2022. Berger stated that he and his colleagues had established the existence of intentional burials, the controlled use of fire, and the carving of primitive
rock art In archaeology, rock arts are human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type al ...
by ''Homo naledi'' in the subchamber. The two papers were made available on bioRxiv later that day. Over the next few weeks, Berger appeared on numerous talk show interviews, podcasts, YouTube channels, and other popular media formats, again stating conclusively that the ''Homo naledi'' had engaged in the aforementioned behaviors, despite no peer-reviewed evidence having been made public yet. He also discussed his team's decision to publish in the controversial open-access journal
eLife ''eLife'' is a not-for-profit, peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journal, science publisher for the Biomedicine, biomedical and life sciences. It was established at the end of 2012 by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Max Planck Society, ...
, which announced in late 2022 that it would no longer engage in traditional accept/reject peer review starting in 2023, instead pursuing its own "public review", in which articles are accepted after an initial and unspecified "eLife assessment", all peer reviews are publicly accessible on the main article page, and all articles are published as "versions of record" regardless of the actual input from reviewers. All three papers were made available on eLife as "reviewed preprints" on July 11, 2023. 8 reviewers provided a total of 11 reviews on the three papers, all of which were severely critical. The reviews noted myriad issues such as extensive lack of relevant citation and evidence, misleading and prematurely conclusive language, and a widespread pattern of trying to prove a preconceived hypothesis (e.g. intentional burials as opposed to natural deposition) rather than following objective scientific process, with one reviewer describing the paper as "storytelling for a popular news article instead of a scientific paper", and another describing the overall perspective as “
HARKing HARKing (hypothesizing after the results are known) is an acronym coined by social psychologist Norbert Kerr that refers to the questionable research practice of "presenting a post hoc hypothesis in the introduction of a research report as if it w ...
”. The reviews concluded that there was virtually no evidence to support the papers' narrative speculations about the observations in the cave to the exclusion of natural formation processes, and recommended against publication in the articles' current state without extensive revision and supplementary evidence. No revisions have yet been made to any of the papers, and it has not been made public whether this will affect eLife's decision to publish the articles. Berger et al. published a single response to all 11 reviews, visible on all three reviewed preprints alongside the peer reviews, briefly noting some of the received criticisms but ignoring others, and not specifying what (if any) revisions would be made to the papers, as is typical in the peer review and revision process. During both the events of 2023 and the first public announcements of Dinaledi excavation findings in 2013, Berger has been widely criticized for rushing through the normal scientific review process and pursuing media blitz rather than responsible and skeptical public science communication. Six days after the initial 2023 publications in eLife, a documentary about Berger and the Rising Star excavation entitled '' Unknown: Cave of Bones'' was released for streaming on Netflix. On August 8, 2023, Penguin Random House published an autobiographical account about the excavations, written by Berger and University of Wisconsin anthropologist John Hawks. In October 2023, Berger received extensive criticism from other scientists for taking specimens of ''A. sediba'' and ''H. naledi'' into space aboard a
Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate, which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and opera ...
craft, which was described as reckless, particularly as the specimen of ''A. sediba'' was part of the
type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...
.


Awards

Collaborative research papers by Berger have been recognized four times as being among the top 100 Science stories of the year by ''Discover Magazine'', an international periodical focusing on popular scientific issues. The first recognition came in 1995 for his co-authored work with
Ron Clarke Ronald William Clarke, Officer of the Order of Australia, AO, Member of the Order of the British Empire, MBE (21 February 1937 – 17 June 2015) was an Australian athlete, writer, and the Mayor of the Gold Coast from 2004 to 2012. He was one o ...
of Wits on the
taphonomy Taphonomy is the study of how organisms decay and become fossilized or preserved in the paleontological record. The term ''taphonomy'' (from Greek language, Greek , 'burial' and , 'law') was introduced to paleontology in 1940 by Soviet scientis ...
of the Taung site and in 1998 for his co-authored work with Henry McHenry of the
University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...
on limb lengths in ''Australopithecus africanus''. He is a
National Press Photographers Association The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) is an American professional association made up of still photographers, television videographers, Editing, editors, and students in the journalism field. Founded in 1946, the organization is base ...
Humanitarian Award winner in 1987 for throwing his camera down while working as a news photographer for television station WTOC and jumping into the
Savannah River The Savannah River is a major river in the Southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and South Carolina. The river flows from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, ...
to save a drowning woman. He is a Golden Plate Awardee of the
Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...
. In 1997, the
National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...
in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
awarded him the first National Geographic Society Prize for Research and Exploration given for his research into human evolution. In April 2016, Berger was selected by ''Time'' as one of its "
100 most influential people ''Time'' 100 is a list of the top 100 most influential people, assembled by the American news magazine ''Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, politicians, and journalists, the list is now a highly ...
".Homo naledi scientist cracks Time's 100 most influential people list
April 21, 2016. ''The South African''.
In 2023 he received the Friend of Darwin award from the
National Center for Science Education The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is a Nonprofit organization, not-for-profit membership organization in the United States whose stated mission is to educate the press and the public on the scientific and educational aspects of con ...
(NCSE) according to the executive director
Ann Reid Ann Reid is an American scientist. Since 2014, she is the executive director of the National Center for Science Education. Education Reid graduated from Bard College at Simon's Rock in environmental science, obtained a master's degree in internat ...
for having “tirelessly promoted the cause of evolution education”.


Personal life

Berger has resided in South Africa since 1989. His wife Jacqueline is a
radiologist Radiology ( ) is the medical specialty that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide treatment within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiation), but tod ...
in the medical school at the
University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...
, the same university where he works. They have a son, Matthew, and a daughter.


Selected publications

Over one hundred scientific and popular articles including several books:


Articles

* *


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). For a review, visi

*''Change Starts in Africa'' (in South Africa the Good News) (S.A. Good News Publishing, 2002) *''Working and Guiding in the Cradle of Humankind'' (Prime Origins Publishing and The South African National Lottery, 2005) * *''The Concise Guide to Kruger'' (Struik, 2007) * *Berger, Lee; Hawks, John (2017). ''Almost Human: The Astonishing Tale of'' Homo naledi ''and the Discovery That Changed Our Human Story''. Washington: National Geographic Society. . *Berger, Lee. ''Cave of Bones: A True Story of Discovery, Adventure, and Human Origins''. Washington: National Geographic Society. .


See also

* Dawn of Humanity, ''Dawn of Humanity'' (2015 PBS film) * Footprints of Eve


References


Further reading

* Berger's Publishe
Curriculum Vitae
* ''In the Footsteps of Eve'', with Brett Hilton-Barber (National Geographic, 2001)
Paleoanthropology in South Africa
in ''Citizendium''


External links


National Geographic OutpostFossil Hunter Television Series

Explorers Bio, National Geographic SocietyNational Geographic blog of Rising Star Expedition membersNational Geographic Live! - Part Ape, Part Human: The Fossils of Malapa
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Lee 1965 births Living people Paleoanthropologists Physical anthropologists South African anthropologists People from Johnson County, Kansas Georgia Southern University alumni Academic staff of the University of the Witwatersrand South African prehistorians People from Sylvania, Georgia Fellows of the Royal Society of South Africa American expatriates in South Africa