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L’Oréal Fellowship winner, Dr Zenobia Jacobs. Photo by: Ti... |
Scientist to probe when humans first arrived in Australia
A Senior Research Fellow from UOW’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Dr Zenobia Jacobs, was last night (25 August) awarded the prestigious L’Oréal Australia ‘For Women in Science’ Fellowship for 2009.
The awards were announced at a ceremony held at L’Oréal’s Australian headquarters in Melbourne.
Dr Jacobs is one of three young Australian scientists to be awarded this fellowship which recognises scientific excellence and intellectual merit. The Fellows were chosen from 111 applicants by a group of eminent scientists. The program is part of L’Oréal’s global support for women in science.
The research to be funded by this fellowship involves using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating techniques to solve an archaeological question of global significance with an Australian focus -- when did humans first arrive in Australia? The answer is critical to understanding the time-depth of Aboriginal occupation, and the timing and speed of dispersal of modern humans out of Africa.
Dr Jacobs has participated in a number of major international research teams working on the Middle Stone Age of Africa. Most recently, she reported in the journal, Science, that early modern humans in her native country of South Africa had mastered the use of fire to improve the stone-tool manufacturing process more than 70,000 years ago.
The L’Oréal $20,000 Fellowship is Dr Jacobs’ first foray into Australian archaeology. It will provide her with the opportunity to develop networks with the Australian archaeological community and to narrow the gap between practitioners of modern scientific dating methods and end-users of those ages.
She hopes the Fellowship will generate significant media exposure of archaeological science activities to the Australian public and renew their interest in the history of this continent and the cultural heritage of Australia’s indigenous hunter-gatherers.
The other two Fellows announced last night were Tamara Davis, University of Queensland, Brisbane/University of Copenhagen; and Marnie Blewitt, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne.