Zeresenay Alemseged
Paleontologist
Paleoanthropologist and Chair of the Anthropology Department at the California Academy of Sciences who is known for discovering "Lucy's child", which is the almost-complete fossilized remains of a 3.3 million year old child. His discovery was a watershed moment in our understanding of human and pre-human evolution.
He was initially a geologist and worked with the National Museum of Ethiopia’s Paleoanthropology Laboratory after graduating from Ethiopia's Addis Ababa University in 1990.
He founded the Dikika Research Project in 1999, an organization that contributed much to the study of paleoanthropology beyond the discovery of Selam.
His family was residing in Axum, Ethiopia, when he was born; one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites.
His discovery of Selam, the world's oldest child, was seen as more proof in favor of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.