PAST is proud to support postgraduate students and senior researchers working on African research, at African museums or studying at African universities within the origin sciences.
These grants recognise academic excellence, innovative thinking, and potential positive impacts on the field.
Congratulations to the successful awardees of PAST funding in our second cycle of 2025. Keep an eye on our website and social media channels as we highlight these ground-breaking scientists who are bringing the deep past to life one project at a time.
| Name and Surname | Institute and Department | Nationality | Grant Type | Project Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Pierre-Antoine Beauvais | University of Cape Town, Archaeology | French | Conference / Workshop | Characterization and provenance of South African stone age lithic raw materials: methodological considerations and future directions. |
| Dr. Valentin Buffa | University of the Witwatersrand, Evolutionary Studies Institute | French | Research Project Support | New exceptional reptile specimens with skin impressions from the Maji ya Chumvi Formation, Kenya. |
| Prof. Anusuy Chinsamy-Turan | University of Cape Town, Biological Sciences | South African | Workshop Support | Communicating paleosciences symposium. |
| Ms. Molatelo Chokoe | Rhodes University, Geology | South African | Degree Support (Masters) | Depositional history and chronostratigraphy of the Upper Chari Member in the Ileret subregion, Turkana Basin, Kenya. |
| Mr. Giovanni D’Eramo | University of the Witwatersrand, Evolutionary Studies Institute | South African | Degree Support (Masters) | The Late Acheulean fauna from Beds 1 and 2 at the Cave of Hearths in the Makapan Valley, South Africa. |
| Prof. Tim Forssman | University of Mpumalanga, School of Social Sciences | South African | Conference Support | Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists conference 2026: Between past and present: African archaeology and its relevance today |
| Ms. Emma Gibbs | Nelson Mandela University, Botany | South African | Degree support (Honours) | Ancient flames of the Swartberg region: reconstructing Late Holocene fire regimes from charcoal preserved in hyrax middens |
| Dr. Sharon Holt | National Museums Bloemfontein, Florisbad Quaternary Research Department | South African | Research Project Support | A skeletal guide to the identification of South African tortoises: sub-adults & juveniles. |
| Dr. Jaganmoy Jodder | University of the Witwatersrand, Evolutionary Studies Institute | Indian | Research Project Support | Great Oxidation Event and its implications for early planetary habitability. |
| Dr. Pierre Linchamps | University of the Witwatersrand, School of Geography, Archaeology and EnvironmentalStudies | Belgian | Research Project Support | A taxonomic revision of the Plio-Pleistocene rodents from South Africa. |
| Ms. Erin Lund | University of the Witwatersrand, Evolutionary Studies Institute | South African | Degree Support (Doctoral) | Torpor and burrowing as survival strategies of Permo-Triassic Therapsida across extinction events. |
| Mr. Zanildo Macungo | University of the Witwatersrand, Evolutionary Studies Institute | Mozambican | Degree Support (Post - Doctoral) | The validity and taxonomy of the early gorgonopsians Galesuchus, Eoarctops and Broomisaurus (Therapsida, Synapsida), and body mass evolution of Middle Permian carnivores. |
| Ms. Kholeka Makhubu | University of Mpumalanga | South African | Degree Support (Masters) | An investigation of activity patterns at Mbere Shelter, Middle Limpopo Valley. |
| Ms. Dineo Masia | University of the Witwatersrand, Evolutionary Studies Institute | South African | Degree Support (Doctoral) | Raw material procurement analysis at Border Cave (KwaZulu-Natal). |
| Dr. Robert Muir | University of the Western Cape, Applied Geology | South African | Research Project Support | Palaeo-environment, age and sedimentary provenance analysis of the Lower Jurassic Barkly East Formation (Drakensberg Group), Eastern Free State. |
| Ms. Inge Nagel | University of the Witwatersrand, Evolutionary Studies Institute | South African | Degree Support (Masters) | The Middle Stone Age fauna from the Cave of Hearths in the Makapan Valley, South Africa. |
| Mr. Patrick Nyaga | University of Witwatersrand, Evolutionary Studies Institute | Kenyan | Degree Support (Masters) | Description of a new procolophonoid reptile from the Early Triassic of the Lunga Lunga area, East Africa, Kenya. |
| Ms. Sandee Oster | University of the Witwatersrand, Archaeology and Environmental Studies | South African | Degree Support (Doctoral) | The 8.2 ka event: A palaeoenvironmental study of Waterfall Bluff Rock Shelter and Strathalan Cave using stable light isotopes and zooarchaeology. |
| Ms. Shanae Page | University of the Witwatersrand, Archaeology | South African | Conference / Workshop | Sterkfontein non-hominin primates: The ecomorphological analysis of fossil monkey postcrania from Members 4 and 5. |
| Dr. Maria Eugenia Pereyra | University of Cape Town, Biological Sciences | Argentina | Degree Support (Post - Doctoral) | Study of the growth strategies and evolutionary history of South African Crocodylidae from their osteohistology. |
| Ms. Reitumetse Sebusi | University of the Witwatersrand, Evolutionary Studies Institute | South African | Degree Support (Masters) | The evolution of the maxillary canal in therocephalians: Implications for facial sensitivity and phylogeny. |
| Ms. Liteboho Senyane | University of Johanneburg, Palaeo-Research Institute | Lesotho | Degree Support (Doctoral) | An exploration of bone tool authorship in South African hunter-herder contexts: A technological and use-wear analysis of worked bone assemblages from later Holocene sites. |
| Mrs. Zethu Shongwe | University of the Witwatersrand, Archaeology | Swazi | Degree Support (Masters) | Palaeoenvironmental inferences from rodent postcranial ecomorphology at Sterkfontein and Cave of Hearths (South Africa, Cradle of Humankind). |
| Southern African Archaeology Student Society | Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists | South African | Conference / Workshop | The 11th annual student development workshop. |
| Ms. Megan Woolley | University of Cape Town, Biological Sciences | South Africa | Degree Support (Doctoral) | Age estimation and life history of modern and fossil mysticetes from Southern Africa. |
| Mr. Michel Zondo | The Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe | Zimbabwean | Research Project Support | Rescue excavations of phytosaur fossils from the shores of Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe. |