Charles Musiba, PhD

TZ Chair

Dr. Charles Musiba is a Professor of Biological Anthropology at Duke University in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology. He also serves as a Research Professor with the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and the Human Evolution Research Institute at the University of Cape Town. He is a Montgomery and Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow whose research focuses on human origins in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Born and raised in Mwanza, Tanzania, on the shores of Lake Victoria, Dr. Musiba has dedicated his career to understanding early human evolution and conserving Africa’s paleoanthropological heritage. His work spans taphonomy and paleoecology at Laetoli, the evolution of upright posture and bipedalism, hominin behavioral ecology at Olduvai Gorge, and the conservation of the 3.6-million-year-old hominin footprints at Laetoli. His research integrates multiple environmental proxies to reconstruct ancient ecosystems dating from approximately four million to 250,000 years ago.

Dr. Musiba holds academic degrees from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität in Frankfurt, the Free University of Brussels, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He previously served in Tanzania’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism as an Assistant Conservator of Antiquities.

In addition to his academic work, Dr. Musiba is actively involved in conservation, education, and cultural exchange initiatives in Tanzania. He currently serves on the Scientific Committee of the International Council on Archaeological Heritage Management and is a member of the international committee supporting the development of an on-site museum at Laetoli to ensure the long-term preservation of this globally significant site.