Theme: LIFE: Past.Present.Future

Where do we come from? Why are we here? How can we preserve our planet for generations to come? In a world where the future seems increasingly uncertain, many of the answers to humanity’s ongoing survival lie buried in the past, beneath our feet.

By digging deep into Earth’s 3.6-billion-year history, Palaeoscience, a scientific discipline that studies earth’s geologic past, explores just how connected we all are, how the past impacts the future, and what we can do to protect our planet today and beyond.

From dinosaurs, climate change, mass extinctions and evolutionary insights to ancient civilizations, food, music, art, technology and more, TEDxJohannesburgSalon | LIFE features an impressive line-up of speakers and topics sure to ignite curiosity and capture the imagination of industry experts and armchair enthusiasts alike.

The Forum
Bryanston
Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2196
South Africa

Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan

Professor - Biological Sciences

Anusuya deciphers biological signals recorded in the bone microstructure of extinct vertebrates, and that of living forms. Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town. Her research focuses on deciphering biological signals recorded in the bone microstructure of extinct vertebrates, as well as that of living forms. She is known for her work on the bone histology and growth patterns of non-avian Dinosaurs, Mesozoic birds, and more recently extinct birds, and the dromornithids, as well as the Permian and Triassic therapsids from the Karoo basin of South Africa, and a variety of Cenozoic vertebrates from the West Coast Fossil Park.

Bongekile Zwane

Archeobotanist

Bongekile studies ancient plant remains to find out how humans used them for food, fuel, and medicine. Bongekile Zwane is a postdoctoral fellow at the African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University. She completed her studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she trained in the methods of archaeology. She specialises in analysing wood charcoal from archaeological sites to answer questions on plant use, climate changes, and vegetation transformation. She is fascinated by how the interaction of the three affected human biological and cultural evolution from prehistory to historical times.

Briana Pobiner

Palaeoanthropologist

Briana leads the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program’s education and outreach efforts. Briana Pobiner is an associate research professor of anthropology at George Washington University. Her research centres on the evolution of the human diet, but has included cannibalism in the Cook Islands, and chimpanzee carnivory. She has undertaken fieldwork in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Indonesia. Pobiner joined the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in 2005. In addition to continuing her active field, lab, and experimental work, she leads the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program’s education and outreach efforts.

Bruce Rubidge

Palaeontologist

Bruce focuses on the Karoo fossil record and its significance in understanding the origin of mammals. Bruce Rubidge is a Professor at the Evolutionary Studies Institute. His research focuses on the Karoo fossil record: its significance in understanding the origin of mammals, its applications in stratigraphy, Pangaean biogeography, and basin development studies. After completing his studies at Stellenbosch University, he headed various institutions until 2013, when he was appointed Director of NRF Centre of Excellence for Palaeosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Elija Madiba

Sound Engineer

Elijah works to digitise African musical heritage and connect it to contemporary communities. Elija Madiba is the sound engineer and studio manager at the International Library of African Music (ILAM). He has been part of the team coordinating the digitisation of collections at ILAM. He teaches instrumental music studies in the ethnomusicology program run by the Rhodes Music department. His commitment to community outreach connects African musical heritage to contemporary communities. Elijah holds a Diploma in Music and bachelor's Degree in Music from Nelson Mandela University and a Masters in Ethnomusicology from Rhodes University.

Jaganmoy Jodder

Geobiologist

Jaganmoy unpacks the co-evolution of Earth and life by studying rocks and the stories they tell. Jaganmoy Jodder joined the University of Johannesburg in 2016 to pursue his Ph.D. on the Archaean rock record of the Singhbhum Craton, India, under the supervision of Prof. Axel Hofmann. For his postdoctoral research, Jaganmoy is working with Prof. Pierre Durand at the Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, on "Co-operation and group-level behaviour recorded from the earliest microfossils on Earth." His interest is to understand the co-evolution of Earth and life.

Jessica Thompson

Palaeolithic Anthropologist

Jessica studies interactions that our human ancestors had with their environments by analysing objects they left behind. Jessica Thompson is an assistant professor of anthropology at Yale University and an assistant curator at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. She has devoted her career to understanding the interactions past humans and human ancestors had with their environments through analysis of objects they left behind, alongside bones from animals they hunted. She has led or had senior roles in projects spanning the Stone Ages, examining the long-term trajectory of how humans transformed into significant shapers of the world around them.

Jonah Choiniere

Palaeobiologist

Jonah works on the evolution of theropod dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic. Jonah Choiniere graduated from George Washington University, USA, where he received his Ph.D. in Biology under the supervision of Professor James M. Clark in 2010. He then moved on to a postdoctoral position as a Kalbfleisch Fellow and Gerstner Scholar at the American Museum of Natural History under the supervision of Dr. Mark A. Norell. He is a Professor at the Evolutionary Studies Institute and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the School of Geosciences (Wits), where he is working on the evolution of basal sauropodomorphs, the terrestrial Triassic-Jurassic boundary.

José Braga

Evolutionary Ecologist

José is the principal investigator at the world-class UNESCO Kromdraai site within the Cradle of Humankind. José Braga graduated in multiple disciplines to equip himself for intensive field research in Africa, where he would study the early steps of humanity. As part of his academic development, he took on several post-doctoral fellowships in Switzerland, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa. He became a full Professor in 2006 at the University Paul Sabatier (France). José currently develops fieldwork at Kromdraai, the world-class UNESCO site within the Cradle of Humankind, where on-going discoveries fill the gaps in what we know about early human societies.

Keneiloe Molopyane

Archaeologist and biological anthropologist

Keneiloe is a National Geographic Society Emerging Explorer and researcher at the Centre for the Exploration of the Deep Human Journey. Keneiloe Molopyane is National Geographic Society 2021 Emerging Explorer. An archaeologist and biological anthropologist, she is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Exploration of the Deep Human Journey, University of the Witwatersrand. She has excavated with the team in the Rising Star cave system in South Africa, searching for fossil remains that will aid our understanding of human origins. She has an M.Sc. in bioarchaeology from the University of York (UK), and a Ph.D. in biological anthropology from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Kimi Chapelle

Vetebrate Palaeontologist

Kimi is a vertebrate palaeontologist studying dinosaur growth and development. Her research focuses on basal sauropodomorphs, the ancestors of well-loved giants like Diplodocus. She explores how these creatures grew, moved, and evolved. Kimi holds a DSI-NRF GENUS Next Generation Palaeoscientist Grant. She completed her Ph.D. at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2019. She recently completed a Kalbfleisch Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Lee Watkins

Ethnomusicologist

Lee Watkins is the Director of the International Library of African Music, a research institute established in 1954 and based at Rhodes University. His interests vary from music and intangible heritage, to music relating to politics and marginality. He is committed to dissolving the borders between music sub-disciplines and the community at large and increasing exposure to music cultures hitherto unknown to audiences. Lee holds a BA (Hons), cum laude, MA cum laude (UKZN), Ph.D. (University of Hong Kong), HDE (University of the Western Cape).

Rob Muir

Geologist

Rob Muir is a geologist interested in understanding how a changing landscape affects the life that occupies it. His current pursuit is to recalibrate the tectonic events that occurred during the breakup of Gondwana, and to determine how affected African landscapes have changed through time. Rob typically combines radiogenic isotopes with field observations to answer research questions – by either dating stratigraphic units, exposed surfaces, or determining a rock’s thermal history. He is a senior lecturer at the University of the Free State.

Robyn Pickering

Geochemist

Robyn Pickering is a geologist who specialises in determining the age of carbonate rocks and the environment they were in when they formed. Most of the carbonates she works on are associated with important sites of human evolution. She uses the uranium-series dating method to provide ages for these rocks and has been developing this technique for the last fifteen years. Robyn is currently the co-director of the Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) at UCT and is proud to be involved in this work of transforming palaeoanthropology in South Africa.

Rongedzayi Fambasayi

Children Museum Head

Rongedzayi Fambasayi is the MD for Play Africa, a pioneering children's museum in southern Africa. He is a passionate champion of children, education, playful learning, and inclusive child-responsive cities. A children’s rights lawyer by training, Rongedzayi has over ten years experience leading multi-country and multi-donor human rights and development projects. He is an independent external expert in the Working Group on Children's Rights and Climate Change of the African Union's Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

Tammy Hodgskiss

Museum Curator | Archeologist

Tammy Hodgskiss has been the curator of the Origins Centre museum at the University of the Witwatersrand. She received her Ph.D. in archeology from Wits University in 2013. Her passion is ochre use in the past and present in southern Africa. She has published on this topic in local and international journals. Tammy has worked on the ochre assemblages at various South African sites, including Sibudu and Rose Cottage Caves. She also keeps her hands dirty by running interactive ochre workshops involving ochre paint creation and archaeology-inspired painting.