Richard Leakey Honored for Lifetime Achievement

Dr. Richard Leakey

Stony Brook’s Dr. Richard Leakey has been honored for lifetime achievement by the annual Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards. Founded in 2010 by Craig Hatkoff along with disruptive innovation “founding father” Clayton Christensen, the awards recognize leading innovators not only in the technology and industrial sectors but also in the non-traditional areas that are desperately in need of innovation to help solve intractable problems.

Leakey is a professor of anthropology at Stony Brook University, where he helped establish the Turkana Basin Institute, a not-for-profit research facility based in Kenya. In recent years he has become a prominent spokesman for efforts to halt poaching of endangered elephants in Kenya.

“Although subjected to political impasses, intimidation and physical violence, [Leakey]  continues to fight for political justice in Kenya,” the award citation reads. “Dr. Richard Leakey continues to lecture on environmental themes and is currently involved in grassroots wildlife conservation projects.”