Colin Leakey
Encyclopedia
Colin Louis Avern Leakey (born 13 December 1933, Cambridge
, England
) is a leading plant scientist in the United Kingdom
, a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge
and of the Institute of Biology
, and a world authority on bean
s.
(1903–1972), the Africa
n archaeologist
, and Frida Leakey, of Newnham College, Cambridge
. He is the elder half-brother of both Richard Erskine Frere Leakey
, the Kenya
n paleontologist
and conservationist
, and Philip Leakey
, the Kenyan politician. The paleontologists Meave Leakey
and Louise Leakey
are Colin Leakey's sister-in-law and niece.
After Gresham's School
, Holt
, Leakey served his national service
in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, including a year on the staff of Lord Mountbatten
who was then Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. Leakey then studied physiology
, biochemistry
, botany
and the history and philosophy of science for a first degree at Cambridge University in Natural Sciences. He later trained in tropical agriculture and tropical plant pathology at Exeter University and the University of the West Indies
, Trinidad
, receiving a postgraduate Diploma in Tropical Agriculture, specializing in tropical plant pathology. At Exeter, he was awarded the Currie Memorial Prize.
In 1972, having already taught doctoral students at Makerere University
, Uganda
, he was awarded a PhD
by the University of Cambridge.
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) is a leading plant scientist in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
and of the Institute of Biology
Institute of Biology
The Institute of Biology was a professional body for biologists, primarily those working in the United Kingdom. The Institute was founded in 1950 by the Biological Council: the then umbrella body for Britain's many learned biological societies...
, and a world authority on bean
Bean
Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed....
s.
Background
Colin Leakey is the son of Louis Seymour Bazett LeakeyLouis Leakey
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey was a British archaeologist and naturalist whose work was important in establishing human evolutionary development in Africa. He also played a major role in creating organizations for future research in Africa and for protecting wildlife there...
(1903–1972), the Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n archaeologist
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, and Frida Leakey, of Newnham College, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. He is the elder half-brother of both Richard Erskine Frere Leakey
Richard Leakey
Richard Erskine Frere Leakey is a politician, paleoanthropologist and conservationist. He is second of the three sons of the archaeologists Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey, and is the younger brother of Colin Leakey...
, the Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
n paleontologist
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
and conservationist
Conservationist
Conservationists are proponents or advocates of conservation. They advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...
, and Philip Leakey
Philip Leakey
Philip Leakey was educated at Leighton Park School and is a former member of the Kenyan Parliament. He represented the KANU party led by then president Daniel Arap Moi. He was an MP of Langata Constituency from 1979 and served as a cabinet minister for a short stint...
, the Kenyan politician. The paleontologists Meave Leakey
Meave Leakey
Meave G. Leakey is together with her husband Richard Leakey one of the most renowned contemporary paleontologists. She studies the origin of mankind in Africa.-Flat-Faced Man of Kenya:...
and Louise Leakey
Louise Leakey
Louise Leakey is a Kenyan paleontologist. She does research and field work related to human fossils in Eastern Africa. She first became actively involved in fossil discoveries in 1977, at the age of six, when she became the youngest person to find hominid fossils...
are Colin Leakey's sister-in-law and niece.
Education
Gresham's School
Gresham’s School is an independent coeducational boarding school in Holt in North Norfolk, England, a member of the HMC.The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a free grammar school for forty boys, following King Henry VIII's dissolution of the Augustinian priory at Beeston Regis...
, Holt
Holt, Norfolk
Holt is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The town is north of the city of Norwich, west of Cromer and east of King's Lynn. The town is on the route of the A148 King's Lynn to Cromer road. The nearest railway station is in the town of Sheringham where access to the...
, Leakey served his national service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, including a year on the staff of Lord Mountbatten
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS , was a British statesman and naval officer, and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
who was then Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. Leakey then studied physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
, biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
, botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
and the history and philosophy of science for a first degree at Cambridge University in Natural Sciences. He later trained in tropical agriculture and tropical plant pathology at Exeter University and the University of the West Indies
University of the West Indies
The University of the West Indies , is an autonomous regional institution supported by and serving 17 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica,...
, Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, receiving a postgraduate Diploma in Tropical Agriculture, specializing in tropical plant pathology. At Exeter, he was awarded the Currie Memorial Prize.
In 1972, having already taught doctoral students at Makerere University
Makerere University
Makerere University , Uganda's largest and second-oldest higher institution of learning, , was first established as a technical school in 1922. In 1963 it became the University of East Africa, offering courses leading to general degrees from the University of London...
, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, he was awarded a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
by the University of Cambridge.
Publications
- Background to current breeding work at Makerere University, Uganda (1970)
- Anthracnose resistance breeding in Pinto beans in Uganda using the ARE gene from Cornell (1970)
- Scope for breeding for improved protein content and quality in Dry Beans in Uganda (1970)
- Need one grow pure lines in developing Countries (Annual Report of the Bean Improvement Co-operative, 1970)
- The improvement of beans in East Africa (in Crop Improvement in East Africa, ed. C.L.A. Leakey, Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau, (1970)
- Races of Colletotrichum lindemuthianum and implications for bean breeding in Uganda (Annual of Applied Biology, with A. Simbwa-Bunnya, 1971)
- Bean Rust studies in Uganda (with J. Atkins & J. Magara, Annual Report of the Bean Improvement Co-operative, 1972)
- Crop Index in Beans (Annual Report of the Bean Improvement Co-operative, 1972)
- Factors affecting increased production and marketing of food crops in Uganda (East African Journal of Rural Development, 1972)
- The effect of plant population and fertility level on the yield and its components in two determinate cultivars of Phaseolus vulgaris (Journal of Agricultural Science 1972)
- A note on Xanthomonas blight of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris (L.) Savi and prospects for its control by breeding for tolerance (Euphytica 1973)
- Potentials of field beans and other food legumes in Latin America (1974)
- Making use of germplasm collections (Bean Improvement Co-operative Annual Report 1975)
- Effective rhizobium inoculation in beans - a mini review (Annual Report of the Bean Improvement Co-operative 1977)
- Collecting diary of Dr and Mrs C.L.A. Leakey, Spain 4-23 September 1979 (report in two volumes for CIAT, 1979)
- Phenotype and Corresponding Genotypic Descriptors for Phaseolus vulgaris (International Board for Plant Genetic Resources, Rome, 1982)
- Genotypic and Phenotypic markers in Common Bean (1988)
- Breeding on the C, J and B loci for modification of bean seed-coat flavonoids with the objective of improving food acceptability (Bean Improvement Co-operative Annual Report 1992)
- Beans - Past, Present and Future: a Ugandan Perspective (African Crop Science Conference Proceedings, 1994)
- A survey of beans in relation to their consumption and cooking characteristics carried out in Kenya during January and February 1994 (with G Njeri-Maina, J.K. Kamau & S.M.W. Munene (Food Research Institute, Norwich, 1994)
- Beans, Fibre, Health and Gas (with C. Harbach, Royal Society of Chemistry, 1995)
- Flatulence, a re-examination of the causes, and the development of improved technology for direct volumetric measurement and determination of organic volatiles in flatus (with C. Harbach, Proceedings of the Second European Conference on Grain Legumes, Copenhagen 1995)
- Breeding Phaseolus beans for consumer quality (Grain Legumes, 1996)
- Mantecas, a new class of beans Phaseolus vulgaris of enhanced digestibility (with G. Hosfield & A. Dubois, Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Grain Legumes, Valladolid 1998)
- Progress in developing dry Phaseolus beans for Britain, Protection and Production of Combinable Break Crops (Aspects of Applied Biology, 1999)
- Progress in developing tannin-free dry Phaseolus vulgaris (Bean Improvement Co-operative Biennial Conference Proceedings, Calgary, Canada, 1999)
External links
- LeakeyFoundation.org - The Leakey Foundation: committed to research related to human origins
- Talk Origins.org - Louis Leakey