Charles Kimberlin Brain Explained
Charles Kimberlin Brain (7 May 1931 – 6 June 2023), also known as C. K. "Bob" Brain, was a South African paleontologist who studied and taught African cave taphonomy for more than fifty years.
Biography
Brain was born in Salisbury, Northern Rhodesia on 7 May 1931.[1]
From 1965 to 1991, Brain directed the Transvaal Museum, which became one of the most scientifically productive institutions of its kind in Africa during his tenure.
During his years at the museum, Brain actively pursued his own research, which was A-rated by the Foundation for Research Development (now the National Research Foundation of South Africa) from the inception of its evaluation system in 1984 until his retirement.
Brain planned and scripted the displays in the museum's "Life’s Genesis I" and "Life's Genesis 2" halls, which have been seen by several million visitors.
Very early in Brain's career, Robert Ardrey wrote of him:
Although Brain retired in 1996, he was active as Curator Emeritus at the Transvaal Museum, an Honorary Professor of Zoology at the University of the Witwatersrand, an active Research Associate at the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, and Chief Scientific Advisor to the Palaeo-Anthropology Scientific Trust (PAST). He was an active researcher of fossils of the earliest animals and was co-ordinating a renewed excavation initiative at the Swartkrans Cave. He was a consulting editor for the Annals of the Eastern Cape Museums.[2]
In its 2006 Lifetime Achiever tribute to Brain, the National Research Foundation of South Africa said:
Brain was invited participant at over thirty international conferences and symposia worldwide. He and his wife had four children. He died on 8 June 2023, at the age of 92.[3] [4]
A species of legless lizard, Typhlosaurus braini, is named in his honour.[5]
Education
Honours and awards
- Four Honorary Doctorates:
1999: University of the Witwatersrand
1999: University of Pretoria
1993: University of Natal
1991: University of Cape Town
Scholarly scientific societies
In addition to other active memberships, Brain was a founding member of four societies:
- Palaeontological Society of Southern Africa
- South African Archaeological Society
- South African Society for Quaternary Research
- Zoological Society of Southern Africa
- 1974–75: President
- 1969–73: Vice President
Publications
- Nearly two hundred, including several books.
Books
- "Swartkrans: A Cave’s Chronicle of Early Man." (ed.) 2nd Edition. Transvaal Museum Monograph No. 8, 1–295, 2005.
- "Fifty years of fun with fossils: some cave taphonomy-related ideas and concepts that emerged between 1953 and 2003." In African Taphonomy: A Tribute to the Career of C.K. "Bob" Brain. Edited by Travis Pickering, Katherine Schick, and Nicholas Toth, Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology (CRAFT Center), Stone Age Institute, Indiana University Bloomington, 2004.
- Raymond Dart and our African origins. In A Century of Nature: Twenty-One Discoveries that Changed Science and the World, Laura Garwin and Tim Lincoln, editors. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Hardcover: . Paperback: .
- . C.K. Brain. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981. Paperback:, . Press page.
Scientific journals
(This list is very incomplete.)
References
- A Tribute to the Career of C.K. "Bob" Brain. African Taphonomy Conference, Stone Age Institute, 28 April – 1 May 2004, Indiana University Bloomington.
- Sponsored in part by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, founded and endowed in 1941 by Axel Wenner-Gren as the Viking Fund.
- "…scientists from around the world convened in Bloomington, Indiana to celebrate the life and career of Bob Brain, Curator Emeritus of the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, South Africa. Dr. Brain is an African prehistorian with over 50 years of experience in the natural sciences. He is best known for his research at famous ape-man cave sites in southern Africa."
- "Killer Cats Hunted Human Ancestors: Three South African scientists believe they have identified several predators that preyed upon human ancestors millions of years ago." Shaun Smillie, National Geographic News, 20 May 2002
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Charles Brain . Who's Who – Southern Africa . whoswho.co.za . 23 May 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120818023814/http://www.whoswho.co.za/charles-brain-2762 . 18 August 2012 . dead .
- Web site: Consulting Editors . https://archive.today/20110709160927/http://www.ru.ac.za/affiliates/am/annals/ . dead . 9 July 2011 . Rhodes University . Rhodes University . Annals of the Eastern Cape Museums .
- Web site: Smillie . Shaun . 8 June 2023 . OBITUARY: Renowned South African palaeontologist Bob Brain dies at 92 . 9 June 2023 . Daily Maverick . en.
- Web site: Rubidge . Bruce . In memory of Charles K. "Bob" Brain . 9 June 2023 . Palaeontological Society of Southern Africa . en-GB.
- Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Brain", p. 37).
