Emma Mbua: Difference between revisions

Mbua was born in 1961. Her career began in 1979 when she began work at the [[National Museums of Kenya]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Emma Mbua {{!}} TrowelBlazers|date=13 November 2020 |url=https://trowelblazers.com/emma-mbua/|access-date=2021-03-11}}</ref> She applied for a role there after finishing her A-Levels at Lugulu High School.<ref name=":1">Thang'wa, Josephine. "[https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA02578301_246 The evolution of East Africa's first African woman palaeoanthropologist.]" ''Kenya Past and Present'' 32.1 (2001): 72-75.</ref> While at the National Museum of Kenya, Emma was stationed at [[Paleontology|palaeontology]] laboratory for two years before she was moved to the human origins section.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Josephine Thangwa|title=The evolution of East Africa's first African woman palaeoanthropologist|url=https://journals.co.za/doi/10.10520/AJA02578301_246|journal=Sabinet African Journals|pages=72–75|via=Sabinet African Journals}}</ref>

Mbua has worked at a number of different sites during her career including at Turkana and Sibiloi National Park.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Mutu|first=Kari|date=2015|title=Kenya: Scientist Finds Early Human Fossils Near Nairobi|url=https://allafrica.com/stories/201505201565.html|url-status=live}}</ref> She is principal investigator on the [[Kantis Fossil Site]], which she was awarded grants from the [[Leakey Foundation]] and the [[Wenner Gren Foundation|Wenner-Gren Foundation]], as well as the National Geographic Society, (2018) and Paleontological Scientific Trust (PAST) in 2011, to run excavations at.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Grantee Spotlight: Emma Mbua|url=https://leakeyfoundation.org/grantee-spotlight-emma-mbua/|access-date=2021-03-11|website=The Leakey Foundation|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Mbua, Emma Nguvi {{!}} The Wenner-Gren Foundation|url=http://www.wennergren.org/grantees/mbua-emma-nguvi-0|access-date=2021-03-11|website=www.wennergren.org}}</ref> There Mbua and her team excavated a carnivore hotspot as well a canine tooth and a forearm bone from an adult [[Australopithecus afarensis|''Australopithecus'' ''afarensis'']]'' as well as two juvenile teeth of the same species.''<ref name=":0" /> This discovery was the furthest east of the [[Rift valley|Rift Valley]] that remains of Austrolopithecus afarensis had been found.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Emma Mbua – Antrocom|url=http://www.antrocom.net/tag/emma-mbua/|access-date=2021-03-11|website=www.antrocom.net}}</ref> 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 the [https://eaappinfo.wordpress.com/ 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]] she has many students; she also spent a year as a Senior Lecturer at [[Mount Kenya University]] in 2015.<ref name=":2" />