Emma Mbua (born 1961) is a Kenyan

Paleoanthropologist 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 kinship ...

and a

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

, who is the first East African woman to work as a

paleoanthropologist 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 kinship ...

Career

Mbua was born in 1961. Her career began in 1979 when she began work at the

National Museums of Kenya The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) is a state corporation that manages museums, sites and monuments in Kenya. It carries out heritage research, and has expertise in subjects ranging from palaeontology, archeology, ethnography and biodiversit ...

. She applied for a role there after finishing her A-Levels at Lugulu High School.Thang'wa, Josephine.
The evolution of East Africa's first African woman palaeoanthropologist.
''Kenya Past and Present'' 32.1 (2001): 72-75. While at the National Museum of Kenya, Emma was stationed at

palaeontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

laboratory for two years before she was moved to the human origins section. In 1985, she began an MPhil qualification at the University of Liverpool in 1993. She completed her doctorate at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

with Günter Bräuer in 2001, in which she studied the transition of

homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...

to modern humans. She is the first woman from East Africa to have a career as a paleoanthropologist. Mbua has worked at a number of different sites during her career including at Turkana and Sibiloi National Park. She is principal investigator on the Kantis Fossil Site, which she was awarded grants from the

Leakey Foundation Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai ...

and the

Wenner-Gren Foundation Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren (5 June 1881 – 24 November 1961) was a Swedish entrepreneur and one of the wealthiest men in the world during the 1930s. Early life He was born on 5 June 1881 in Uddevalla, a town on the west coast of Sweden. He w ...

, as well as the National Geographic Society, (2018) and Paleontological Scientific Trust (PAST) in 2011, to run excavations at. There Mbua and her team excavated a carnivore hotspot as well a canine tooth and a forearm bone from an adult ''Australopithecus'' ''afarensis'' as well as two juvenile teeth of the same species. This discovery was the furthest east of the Rift Valley that remains of Austrolopithecus afarensis had been found. In 2002 she became the Head of and Principal Research Scientist in the Department of Earth Sciences at National Museums Kenya. In 2005 she co-founded th
East African Association of Palaeoanthropology and Palaeontology
(EAAPP), to strengthen prehistoric research in the region and unite scholars. As a lecturer at the

University of Nairobi , mottoeng = In unity and work , image = Uon emblem.gif , image_size = 210px , caption = Coat of Arms of the University , type = Public , endowment ...

she has many students; she also spent a year as a Senior Lecturer at

Mount Kenya University Mount Kenya University (MKU) is a private, multi-campus, university in the municipal county of Thika, Kenya. The university was founded by Simon Gicharu, Prof. Simon N. Gicharu and has since become one of the largest private universities in Ken ...

in 2015. In her role at National Museums of Kenya, she gave author

Bill Bryson William McGuire Bryson (; born 8 December 1951) is an American–British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has b ...

a behind-the-scenes tour of the collections, which featured in his book ''African Diary.''

Selected publications

* Mbua, Emma, Soichiro Kusaka, Yutaka Kunimatsu, Denis Geraads, et al. 2016. Kantis: New Australopithecus Site on the Shoulders of the Rift Valley near Nairobi, Kenya. ''

Journal of Human Evolution The ''Journal of Human Evolution'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that concentrates on publishing the highest quality papers covering all aspects of human evolution. JHE was established in 1972 and is published by Elsevier. The Edi ...

'' 94:28-44. *Thure E. Cerling, Fredrick Kyalo Manthi, Emma N. Mbua, Louise N. Leakey, Meave G. Leakey, Richard E. Leakey, Francis H. Brown, Frederick E. Grine, John A. Hart, Prince Kaleme, Hélène Roche, Kevin T. Uno, Bernard A. Wood. Diet of Turkana Basin hominins. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' Jun 2013, 110 (26) 10501–10506. * Bräuer, Günter, Mbua, Emma. ''Homo erectus'' features used in cladistics and their variability in Asian and African hominids. ''Journal of Human Evolution'' 1992, 22 (2) 79–108.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mbua, Emma 1961 births Living people University of Hamburg alumni Paleoanthropologists Kenyan paleontologists Kenyan archaeologists Women paleontologists Kenyan curators 21st-century Kenyan women scientists 21st-century Kenyan scientists Kenyan women archaeologists Kenyan women curators