Leighton A. Wilkie Memorial Lecture and CRAFT & Stone Age Institute Award for Outstanding Research into Human Origins
This award is presented to individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to human evolutionary studies. Recipients are invited to give a talk on their work and receive an engraved plaque from the Stone Age Institute and CRAFT. Leighton A. Wilkie (1900-1993) was an inventor and tool-maker. About 70 years ago he invented the metal-cutting band saw (contour band machine), considered to be one of the seven basic machine tools. He founded the DoALL Company in Des Plaines, Illinois, which produces a range of modern machine tools. Leighton had a passion for human origins, in particular the evolution of human technology. Under his early sponsorship, Jane Goodall was able to mount her first expedition to Tanzania to study wild |
chimpanzees at Gombe Reserve, a study which first documented for the world ape tool-making and tool-using. She name one of the most proficient tool-using chimpanzees “Wilkie” after her sponsor. Leighton also supported the research of Raymond Dart in South Africa and of Louis and Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge. We would like to acknowledge our personal gratitude to Leighton Wilkie and his family, who shared our vision for the CRAFT Research Center and the Stone Age Insitute and was an early supporter of our mission. His library on human origins and technology and his artifact collection are invaluable additions to the Stone Age Institute. Our distinguished lecture series in his honor is a lasting memory of his interest and support of Stone Age studies. |
Past recipients of the Outstanding Research Award |
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| 2008 | David Christian, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia | |
| 2007 | Ralph Holloway, Columbia University | |
| 2006 | David Lordkipanidze, National Museum, Republic of Georgia, Tbilisi | |
| 2006 | Duane Rumbaugh, Great Ape Trust, Des Moines Iowa | |
| 2005 | Pat Shipman, The Pennsylvania State University | |
| 2005 | Alan Walker, The Pennsylvania State University | |
| 2004 | C.K. "Bob" Brain, Transvaal Museum, Pretoria, South Africa | |
| 2003 | Ron Clarke, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa | |
| 2002 | Ralph Holloway, Columbia University | |
| 2001 | Harold Dibble, University of Pennsylvania | |
| 2000 | Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Georgia State University | |
| 1999 | Frank Brown, University of Utah, Salt Lake City | |
| 1998 | Jean Clottes and Robert Begouen, Begouen Association France Lorraine Copeland, Chateau de Marouatte, France |
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| 1997 | Richard Klein, Stanford University | |
| 1996 | F. Clark Howell, University of California, Berkeley | |
| 1995 | William McGrew, Miami University, OH | |
| 1994 | J. Desmond Clark, University of California, Berkeley | |
| 1993 | Jane Goodall, Jane Goodall Institute, Tucson, AZ and Gombe Reserve, Tanzania | |
| 1992 | Mary Leakey, National Museums of Kenya and Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania | |
| 1991 | Kanzi and the Language Research Center, Georgia State University | |
