We’ve had an incredible first few weeks at TBI Turkwel! After our time at Mpala, we’ve hit the ground running and have been really busy visiting the incredible sites in the Turkana Basin and enjoying life at TBI! As part of the Environments, Ecosystems and Evolution course taught by Dr. Nicholas Taylor, we created toilet [...]
Welcome to the field school where we study more than just rocks ;) Are you wondering what engineering students do here at TBI? If so, this is the post for you! I’m writing to give you a little insight on the work we do. But first, let me introduce myself and my peer: My name [...]
Jambo! The Summer 2023 Field Schools are underway!! This year, we have both an Origins Field School and a Global Innovation Field School, being led by Dr. Nicholas Taylor and Acacia Leakey respectively, with Teaching Assistant Medina Lubisia. We arrived in Turkana earlier today, having spent an amazing few days at Mpala Research Center and [...]
Hello again! I’m Ian, and I’m back this week with Owich to talk about the beginning of our last module, Prehistoric Archaeology, taught by Prof. Sonia Harmand. Dr. Sonia Harmand talking the students through the stratigraphy near the Nadung'a sites. We’re now in our last two weeks here at TBI, and it really [...]
We arrived back to TBI Turkwel Campus from Nariokotome on Tuesday, tired but happy. The day was spent resting and preparing for the final presentations in our archeology module. By Wednesday, everyone was back to full gear and we spent most of the day working on our presentations and the final tasks of the module. [...]
Hello, I am Tom Otube, an environmental science graduate from Kabarak University. This week we started our Human Evolution module which is taught by Dr. Carrie Mongle and Dr. Louise Leakey. On the first day, Dr. Mongle took us through the course objectives and an overview of human evolution by providing the historical context of [...]
Meet Rashid Nafwa and Vincent Okoth, students from the Technical University of Kenya (TUK) working with the telescope at TBI Ileret. Rashid and Vincent are completing an attachment to meet their final year requirements of gaining practical experience. Vincent Okoth and Rashid Nafwa preparing for a night of observations Astronomy in general is [...]
Hello! My name is Patricia Nyaga, I just completed my undergraduate degree, Bachelor of Arts in History and Archaeology from Maseno University, expecting to graduate in December 2022. This being our second week studying Paleontology, our main focus was on the paleontological field methods. We headed to the Napudet hills for a two-day camping trip [...]
Hello! I’m Ian McMahon, a graduate student here at TBI. I graduated from SUNY Potsdam in 2020 with a degree in archaeology, specializing in human evolution and origins. This week, we started our paleontology module, taught by Dr. Ellen Miller, learning about the MIocene vertebrates of the Turkana Basin. The Miocene lasted from 23.03 to [...]
Hello! My name is Owich and I am an anthropology graduate from the University of Nairobi. We began our second week of geology with a morning classroom session with Dr. Gathogo taking us through the short Cretaceous window, and reconstruction of the Turkana basin geography and particularly the Cenozoic (Age of mammals) rich-sediments. In summary, [...]
Hello, my name is Amelia and I am currently majoring in Anthropology through SUNY Albany in New York. This week we dove into our geology module! We started off by learning the basics of using both the Brunton compass, along with more modern technology by using a handheld GPS system linked to satellites for navigation. [...]
Jambo! Welcome to the TBI Origins Field School blog for Fall 2022! My name is Medina Lubisia, the Resident Academic Director for the Fall Field School. I will be accompanying students throughout the field school as they undertake five modules that will be credited for their Fall semester. The students arrived safely in Nairobi and [...]
Hi again! It’s Ava and Christine, Mechnical Engineering Undergraduate students from MIT D-Lab. After a beautiful few days spotting animals in the Masai Mara, we flew up to TBI's facility on the east side of Lake Turkana in Ileret to continue our evaporative cooling research! During our time in Ileret, we focused on understanding the [...]
Pan of the Miocene Dead Elephant Valley in Buluk, Kenya The last stop on the Turkana Miocene Project field tour was Buluk, Kenya, which has for many years been headed by Ellen Miller. Located east of Lake Turkana, Buluk is an early Miocene site that is rife with…. everything! It is a [...]
We are very sad to share with you the news that Kamoya Kimeu passed away earlier this week after a short spell in hospital with kidney complications. We send our deepest condolences and thoughts to all of his family. Our subsequent appeal to friends and well-wishers to help the family with medical and funeral expenses, [...]
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Dino J. Martins has accepted an offer from the Board of TBI (Kenya) Ltd. to serve as Chief Executive Officer of TBI (Kenya). The offer was made following full consultation with, and enthusiastic support from, TBI Kenya’s key partners: Stony Brook University, the Stony Brook Foundation, and [...]
Wednesday 20th April was yet another memorable occasion for the Ileret community and the community outreach program as TBI hosted the annual scholarship meeting. This was the first such meeting of its kind in Ileret after the Covid-19 restrictions were eased. The attendees of the scholarship review meeting at TBI Ileret The meeting [...]
TBI has been honored to host Dr. Deborah Lindell of Case Western Reserve University for the last 8 months during her Fulbright Fellowship in Turkana. Dr. Lindell has been working on developing a Nursing BSN program at the Turkana University College (TUC), as well as teaching TUC students, conducting research into nursing in Turkana county [...]
March 22nd is World Water Day and this year the international focus is on groundwater. This is a precious resource whose importance is increasing as the impacts of climate change become more significant. We feel this acutely in TBI Ileret where groundwater is critical to our operations. In 2021, we were able to decarbonize [...]
Paleontologist and National Geographic Explorer Isaiah Nengo, associate Director of the Turkana Basin Institute and Director for Research and Science at the Turkana Basin Institute passed away on 23 January at the age of 60. He was passionately dedicated to the study of Miocene hominids in Turkana, Kenya and his fieldwork led to the [...]