Right: Zeresenay Alemseged with a reconstruction of Selam, a juvenile australopith he discovered in Ethiopia.

I’ve known Zeresenay Alemseged for about five years now. When he first came to National Geographic headquarters I was convinced that Ethiopia was finally coming into its own regarding the development of native-born scientists who could talk to the public about the country’s amazing paleoanthropological riches. He was articulate in several languages, highly trained in paleontology, and most promising of all, wanted to rise above the squabbling which has embroiled so many scientists working in Ethiopia. Much credit should go to Dr. Donald Johanson of Arizona State University’s Institute of Human Origins and Yves Coppens of  the College of France in Paris for seeing Zeray through the academic process (not to underplay Zeresenay’s own ferocious tenacity). He went on to become a National Geographic Emerging Explorer in 2005 and I had the pleasure of working with him extensively in developing and ultimately writing the cover story of National Geographic’s November 2006 issue. I was very pleased to see that the TED conference featured him as a speaker. His talk was excellent and can be found on their website. To see Zeresenay's flawless performance on the world stage of the TED conference made me feel that Ethiopian scientists have now really arrived.

Bravo also for Sileshi Semaw of the Stone Age Institute of Indiana State University and Yohannes Haile-Selassie for similar achievements. Both are National Geographic grantees and their recent discoveries are featured in the anthropology section (in Ethiopia) on our National Geographic in Action Map. Check it out.

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