Funds Support Study of Cores from Eastern Africa

Kevin Takashita-Bynum, a first-year Ph.D. student at the University of Houston, has been awarded $1,000 from the National Lacustrine Core Facility (LacCore) and $2,500 from the Geological Society of America to pursue his research.

Takashita-Bynum’s research interests lie within the intersection of geology and paleoanthropology. He utilizes aspects of soil science and geochemistry to reconstruct ancient eastern African environments in areas with known hominin activity.

He will use this funding to study two scientific drill cores collected from Kenya and Ethiopia near hominin fossil sites as part of the Hominin Sites and Paleolake Drilling Project. The cores contain many fossil soils, and by studying the geochemistry, scientists will better understand human-environment interactions during these important periods of time in human evolutionary history.

Takashita-Bynum is advised by Emily Beverly, an assistant professor of sedimentary geology in UH’s Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences.