Alex Du Toit Lecturer Series 2026 - Prof. Robyn Pickering

Alex du Toit Lecture Series 2026

Early humans and hydrology: the geology and dating of the last 3 million years of southern Africa

Associate Professor Robyn Pickering (University of Cape Town)

The Wits School of Geosciences is honoured to host the Johannesburg evening for the Alex du Toit Memorial Lecture 2026, to be presented by Associate Professor Robyn Pickering. The Alex du Toit Memorial Lecture is awarded biennially to recognise world-class research in the Earth sciences. Associate Professor Pickering will be the first female Alex du Toit Lecturer since Edna Plumstead in 1969, marking an important milestone in the history of the lecture.

Associate Professor Pickering is based in the Department of Geological Sciences and is Co-Director of the Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) at the University of Cape Town. She completed her undergraduate studies in geology and archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand, and her PhD in isotope geochemistry at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Following postdoctoral research at the University of Melbourne, she returned to South Africa in 2016 and has since built an internationally recognised research programme.

Her research focuses on the geology, dating, and palaeoenvironments of human evolution in southern Africa, with particular emphasis on rivers, lakes, caves, and impact structures. She was instrumental in establishing South Africa’s first carbonate U-series dating laboratory, and has pioneered innovative in situ analytical approaches. Her field programmes span the Cradle of Humankind, the Kalkkop meteorite impact palaeolake, and the southern Kalahari.

For the 2026 Alex du Toit Memorial Lecture, Associate Professor Pickering will present new insights into how uranium-lead and uranium-series dating techniques have provided the first direct chronologies for early hominin fossils, reconstructed palaeoclimates from 1–3 million years ago, and revealed how early modern humans survived and thrived in now-arid landscapes. She will also reflect on how Alex du Toit’s pioneering approach continues to inspire innovation, transformation, and capacity building within South African geosciences.

Venue: Wits Geosciences, GLT Ground Floor Lecture Theatre

>> Arrival: 17:30

>> Lecture: 18:00

All are welcome!