World-renowned palaeontologist Phillip Tobias is to be awarded the City of Johannesburg’s Walter Sisulu Award, it was announced on Tuesday.
The award, to be presented to him on Thursday, is one of the city’s highest civic honours. It recognises ”a special contribution in promoting the ideals of the City of Johannesburg in particular, and the whole country at large”.
Professor Emeritus Phillip Valentine Tobias (81) is a world authority on human evolution and hominid fossils.
He is closely linked with the archaeological excavation at the Sterkfontein caves, a research programme he initiated in 1966.
The Sterkfontein site has yielded the largest single sample of Australopithecus africanus as well as the first known example of Homo habilis from Southern Africa.
His work disproved racist theories about humankind and launched the first anti-apartheid campaign in South African universities.
He studied genetics at Wits University under Professor Raymond Dart and became head of the department of anatomy in January 1959. He retired from this post in 1990 and remained an honorary research fellow.
He is currently head of the research department at the Sterkfontein caves.
He has received honorary degrees from 17 universities and other academic institutions in South Africa, the United States of America, Canada and Europe. — Sapa