PhD student Lucy Timbrell is awrded two major research grants to support her PhD research at the University of Liverpool - one of $12,646 from The Leakey Foundation and another of $19,995 from The Wenner Gren Foundation.
Lucy's PhD project is titled: “Movement, structure and interaction: modelling population networks and diversity in the Middle Stone Age”. The Leakey Foundation and Wenner Gren are supporting the data collection for her project, the results of which will produce a test of the novel ‘structured African metapopulations model’ for the evolution of our own species, Homo sapiens.
Lucy's project will involve the development of a bespoke remote data collection model for 2D geometric morphometrics. Through this, she hopes to produce a standard for this type of research in the future which helps support local researchers and reduces the environmental impact of overseas collection-based research. The funding will help support with the implementation of this remote model, forming a substantial part of Lucy's PhD research.
Lucy said:
"I am so unbelievably overwhelmed to have received both of these grants! I couldn’t believe it when I heard that I had won just one of them, but then when I found out a few months later that I had been awarded both, it felt like a dream come true. Both The Leakey Foundation and The Wenner Gren are world-renowned in the fields of human evolution studies, anthropology and archaeology, so to have my research supported by them really is an incredible feeling.”