DONALD C. JOHANSON TO SPEAK AT PITT Paleoanthropologist Who Discovered "Lucy"

PITTSBURGH, March 28 -- Donald C. Johanson, discoverer of the

3.2 million-year-old hominid skeleton "Lucy," will present a lecture on Wednesday,

April 11, at 8 p.m., in the William Pitt Union Ballroom, 3959 Fifth Avenue, Oakland.

His find in the Hadar region of Ethiopia in 1974 has had an extraordinary influence on our understanding of early hominid evolution. The lecture, "Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind," is free and open to the public.

Johanson is director of the Institute of Human Origins, which he founded in 1981 in Berkeley, CA. In 1997, the Institute moved its headquarters to Tempe, AZ, after becoming affiliated with Arizona State University, where Johanson also serves as professor of anthropology.

His book, "Lucy," with Maitland Edey, won the American Book Award in Science. Other books he co-authored include "Blueprints: Solving the Mystery of Evolution," "Lucy's Child," "Journey From the Dawn," "Ancestors: In Search of Human Origins," and "From Lucy to Language."

The films "The First Family," and "Lucy in Disguise," highlight the pioneering work of Johanson and his team in Ethiopia. He was host of the PBS Nature series in 1982 and narrated the National Geographic Society film "Fossils: Clues to the Past." Johanson also hosted and narrated the three-part PBS/NOVA series "In Search of Human Origins," which first aired in 1994 and has been seen by more than 100 million viewers worldwide.

Johanson is an honorary board member of the Explorers Club, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and member of many other professional organizations. He has received several international prizes and awards.

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