Final answer:
Louis Leakey was a physical anthropologist who, alongside his wife Mary, made significant contributions to our understanding of human evolution through their paleoanthropological work in East Africa.
Step-by-step explanation:
Louis Leakey was a renowned Kenyan and British paleoanthropologist who, along with his wife Mary Leakey, conducted groundbreaking work in the Eastern Rift Valley of East Africa. Leakey's work primarily focused on the adaption, variability, and evolution of human beings and their living and fossil relatives. This clearly places him in the field of physical anthropology. His discoveries, such as Paranthropus boisei, were instrumental in expanding the understanding of human evolution. Louis Leakey's work intersected with elements of archaeology and biological anthropology, contributing to a greater comprehension of the evolutionary process and pushing the boundaries of anthropology towards paleoanthropology and primatology. Physical anthropologists, like Louis Leakey, engage in studies that overlap with various aspects of broader anthropological and biological sciences, focusing not just on the physical traits of humans and their ancestors, but also on the environmental factors and evolutionary processes that have shaped human development over millions of years.