TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Preeminent evolutionary geneticist Dr. Jerry Coyne will speak Sept. 3 at The University of Alabama on “Why Evolution is True” at 7:30 p.m. in the Biology Auditorium on the UA campus.
Coyne is a professor in the department of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago. He will sign copies of his new book, “Why Evolution Is True,” following his lecture.
Coyne’s presentation is part of Alabama Lectures on Life’s Evolution, known as ALLELE. Now in its fourth year, the 2009-2010 series will feature four other speakers in upcoming months. The lectures are made possible, in large part, by private gifts from Lou Perry of La Jolla, Calif., Eric Hopkins of Austin, Texas and The Barbara and Frank Peters Foundation of Corona del Mar, Calif. In addition to private support, the ALLELE series is supported by UA’s College of Arts and Sciences and the departments of anthropology, biological sciences, geological sciences, philosophy and psychology.
“Evolution is the unifying theory of biology, and it permeates all of science,” said Dr. Leslie Rissler, associate professor in UA’s department of biological sciences and a coordinator of the series. “We hope that the university and the public take advantage of this series to learn more about life on this planet and the future of life.”
The lectures are designed for a non-technical audience and are free and open to the public.
Coyne’s research has focused on the mechanism of speciation, the processes that cause populations of organisms to become separate species. He is the author or co-author of more than 110 scientific publications and two books. He has also written more than 80 columns, articles and book reviews for popular publications, including The New Republic, The New York Times Literary Supplement, Wired, The Skeptical Inquirer and Edge.
All of the ALLELE lectures will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the UA Biology Auditorium. For more information, visit www.bama.ua.edu/~evolution/alleleindex.html.
Other speakers in the 2009-2010 ALLELE series are:
Oct. 29, 2009
Dr. Jonathan Marks
“Darwin’s Ventriloquists”
Dr. Jonathan Marks is a professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has written and spoken extensively about the inappropriate use of race in genetics and medicine. He will argue in his lecture that scientific racism is a more serious problem for evolutionary biology than unscientific creationism.
Nov. 12, 2009
Dr. Robert C. Richardson
“The Natural History of Morality”
Dr. Robert C. Richardson is the Charles Phelps Taft Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati and also the Gervinus Fellow at the Universität Osnabrück in Germany. Dr. Richardson’s research specialties are history and philosophy of science, philosophy of biology and cognitive science. He has published broadly in journals including Philosophy of Science, Mind, Biology and Philosophy, Philosophical Psychology, Erkenntnis and Synthese.
Dec. 3, 2009
Dr. Daniel Povinelli
“Humanizing the Human Mind”
Dr. Daniel Povinelli is professor and director of the Cognitive Evolution Group at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The Cognitive Evolution Group is dedicated to using behavioral studies of chimpanzees and human adults and children to identify the uniquely human aspects of the human mind. Povinelli’s research has been recognized by an American Psychological Association Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology, a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award and a $1 million Centennial Fellowship from the James S. McDonnell Foundation. He has been accepted as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, is an elected fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and was recently named one of “20 Scientists to Watch in the Next 20 Years” by Discover magazine.
Jan. 14, 2010
Dr. Carlos D. Bustamante
“Evolutionary Theory in the Age of Genomics”
Dr. Carlos D. Bustamante has recently moved to Stanford University from Cornell University where he was professor of biological statistics and computational biology. His research focuses on analyzing genome wide patterns of variation to infer details on the evolution of the human species. He addresses fundamental questions in evolutionary biology, anthropology and medical genetics. Bustamante is a leader in his field and publishes routinely in Nature, Science and PLoS — the highest caliber journals in science. Besides humans, Bustamante’s lab also works on other primates, HIV, domesticated plants and animals and theoretical and experimental simulations of microevolution.
Contact
Angie Estes, communication specialist, 205/348-8539, ahestes@as.ua.edu