DR ROBYN PICKERING
Trained as a geology and archaeologist, I am currently a Lecturer in the Department of Geological Sciences in the Faculty of Science at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa.
My research seeks to understand where and most importantly when our early human ancestors evolved. I have spent the last decade developing techniques to date rocks associated with early human (hominin) fossils.
My specific research interests include:
I wrote this 'Behind the Paper' blog post for Nature Ecology and Evolution about the back story of my research, my career path and life as a working mum.
Watch this video made by the South African National Research Foundation for a great summary of my research (disclaimer: that's not just a big lunch, I was almost 8 months pregnant!).
Trained as a geology and archaeologist, I am currently a Lecturer in the Department of Geological Sciences in the Faculty of Science at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa.
My research seeks to understand where and most importantly when our early human ancestors evolved. I have spent the last decade developing techniques to date rocks associated with early human (hominin) fossils.
My specific research interests include:
- Developing the uranium-lead technique applied to cave carbonates (speleothems)
- Dating early hominin cave sites in the 'Cradle of Humankind', South Africa
- Unravelling the palaeoenvironmental signals preserved in speleothems, particularly flowstones
- Pushing back the frontiers of the U-series methods to date pedogenic and laccustrine carbonates
- Southern hemisphere records of climate variability recorded in stalagmites (and other carbonates) from both South Africa and Australia
I wrote this 'Behind the Paper' blog post for Nature Ecology and Evolution about the back story of my research, my career path and life as a working mum.
Watch this video made by the South African National Research Foundation for a great summary of my research (disclaimer: that's not just a big lunch, I was almost 8 months pregnant!).
CAREER PATHMy education and training has primarily been in geology, geochemistry and archaeology. I have a Masters degree (with distinction), an Honours degree (1st class) and Bachelor of Science (with distinction) all from the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
I completed my PhD in 2009, at the University of Bern, Switzerland. My thesis, titled 'A new Uranium-Lead chronology for the early hominin bearing caves of South Africa', was supervised by Prof Jan Kramers (now at UJ). I moved to Australia in 2009, where I held three postdoctoral research positions at the University of Melbourne, between 2009 and 2015. I worked in the Isotope Geochemistry Group under the guidance of Prof Jon Woodhead. My research here continued on the same theme: U-Pb and U-Th dating rocks associated with early human fossils, archaeological deposits and even a fossil monkey. I've had two babies in three years! I took 8 months maternity leave and then worked 50% for 6 months in 2013/14 and took another 6 months of maternity leave in 2016/17. This time out and experience of working part time, taught me everything I know about time management and efficiency. In mid 2015, I returned to South Africa to take up a Lectureship at the University of Cape Town and set up my own U-series lab. I teach 3rd year chemostratigraphy, 1st year palaeontology, a new Honours course on Quaternary environments and the Geology of South Africa to 2nd year engineering students. |
CAREER HIGHLIGHTSAwarded an Advancing Womxn by Womxn Meritorious Award (2019-2023) with my colleagues Becky Ackerman and Jayne Wilkins to build up the Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) at UCT in order to disrupt, decolonise and transform patriarchal narratives of human evolution in South Africa.
Interviewed for The Commute podcast in 2019 Published our research on dating the South African hominin caves in Nature in late 2018 Selected as part of the Vice Chancellor's 2030 Leadership Project at the University of Cape Town in 2018 Awarded the TW Kambule Award for Emerging Researchers by the National Science and Technology Forum in 2017 Elected as a Fellow of the Geological Society of South Africa in 2016 Awarded a 'P' (for Prestigious) research rating from the National Research Foundation, South Africa. Featured in the UCT Research Newsletter in 2015. Awarded the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research at the University of Melbourne in 2013. Invited to the Prime Minister’s Science Awards Dinner, Canberra in 2012 and 2013. Awarded an ARC DECRA Fellowship in 2012 for the project: 'Old stalagmites, new techniques: South African palaeoclimate records linked to early human evolution'. Publications on the age of new hominin species Australopithecus sediba in Science in 2010 and 2011. University of Melbourne Up Close podcast about the dating of Au. sediba in 2011. Voted one of the top 100 most influential and inspirational people in Melbourne (2010) by Melbourne Magazine, part of The Age newspaper. Interviewed for the Brains Matter podcast about the dating of Au. sediba in 2010 and again in 2011. Awarded a McKenzie Post Doctoral Fellowship in 2010 for the project: 'Speleothem chronology: unlocking archives of terrestrial palaeoclimate change and human evolution'. Awarded Swiss National Science Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 2009 for the project: 'U-Pb dating of speleothems from early human occupation sites, Mossel Bay, South Africa: new chronologies and unlocking palaeoclimate records' Winner of the award for Best MSc Project from the Geological Society of South Africa in 2005. |