Cambridge Archaeologist wins prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize
Dr John Rowan, Assistant Professor in Human Evolution at the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, has been awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize.
The prize is awarded by the Leverhulme Trust to early career researchers “whose work has had international impact and whose future research career is exceptionally promising” (The Leverhulme Trust). Only 30 prizes are awarded each year, with each winner receiving £100,000 to support their research programme.
Dr Rowan’s research focuses on the discovery and analysis of fossil hominoids (apes and humans) and their palaeoecological context in Africa.
He is the founder and director of the Lothagam Research Project, a large-scale fieldwork effort by an international team of scientists working in a remote region of northern Kenya. At Lothagam, Dr Rowan’s team aims to uncover long-sought fossil evidence about the earliest phases of our evolution when the human lineage split off from those leading to living great apes.
“There is overwhelming genetic evidence that humans and chimpanzees are each other’s closest living relatives, but the 9-to-6-million-year period when those lineages diverged is one of the most poorly sampled in terms of fossils”
Dr Rowan’s highly successful career thus far includes 59 peer-reviewed publications with over 2000 citations, significant grants to complete research projects as PI, and positions as a senior scientist for seven other fieldwork projects operating in Ethiopia and Kenya.
“The interdisciplinary nature of human evolutionary studies requires expertise in various disciplines—anatomy, geochemistry and geophysics, molecular biology, palaeontology, etc—and I have been fortunate to work with an incredible network of colleagues and friends. In this field, all successes are truly a team effort”
Dr Rowan is passionate about pairing scientific research with capacity building goals in Africa, culminating in his effort to help develop Kenya’s first palaeoanthropology graduate program. The Master’s in Human Evolutionary Biology (MHEB) programme emerged as a partnership between international research teams working in the Turkana Basin with Turkana University College. To date, this programme has served as ‘stepping stone’ for 8 students that have since entered PhD programs abroad.
“This prize is prestigious and richly deserved, and is an acknowledgement of John’s growing reputation and potential. The support from the Leverhulme will provide a perfect springboard for the next phase of his career”
Dr Rowan intends to use the prize to spend time in residence at African museums conducting collections study. He also plans to continue to establish collaborations with local scholars and to recruit African students to the MPhil and PhD programs at Cambridge.
Published 21 October 2025
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