College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
CLASS Distinguished Alumnus 1998
Lee Berger
When Lee Berger accepted the National Geographic Society’s first $100,000 Research and 
Exploration Prize in 1997, he was also coming into his own as the heir-apparent of the mantle once worn by famed anthropologist Louis Leakey. The prize was established to recognize a single individual who epitomizes the qualities inherent in the Society’s goal to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge.
Berger directs paleoanthropological searches for fossil traces in South Africa. His research is prominently featured in an NGS interactive website to attract young explorers into the field. His discovery of the oldest known fossil footprints of an anatomically modern human—dated at 117,000 years—places him in elite company.
Berger graduated from Georgia Southern in 1989 with a degree in anthropology; he credits his years at Georgia Southern and the professors who taught him for influencing his growth and development. The multi-disciplinary focus of the curriculum and the field experience gained while an undergraduate student were instrumental in helping him chart the course of his life’s work. He now works as a paleontologist based at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.