Renowned Paleobiologist to Speak at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — J. William Schopf, discoverer of the oldest known fossils, will give a public lecture at The University of Alabama on Monday, Nov. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in 125 ten Hoor Hall.

Schopf will come to the University as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar. He will spend two days on campus meeting informally with students and faculty members, taking part in classroom discussions and giving a public lecture – “Discovery of Earth’s Earliest Fossils — Solution to Darwin’s Dilemma.”

A public reception will immediately follow his lecture in the Summersell Room, 251 ten Hoor.

Schopf is the director of the University of California, Los Angeles, Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life, and professor of paleobiology in the department of earth and space sciences. He is president of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, a National Academy of Sciences member and an American Philosophical Society member. He was a Humboldt Fellow in Germany during 1997-1998 and has been a Guggenheim Fellow twice.

He’s also written two books, including “Cradle of Life,” winner of the 2000 Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science.

Schopf received a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College in 1963. Both his master’s and doctorate degrees are from Harvard University.

Schopf is coming to the University through the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars Program. The program selects 12 or more distinguished scholars who visit approximately 100 college and universities during a year. The purpose of the Visiting Scholars Program is to contribute to an institution’s intellectual life by facilitating the exchange of ideas between the Visiting Scholars and the resident faculty and students.

While Schopf is at the University, he will tour the special collections, speak to freshmen in the Blount Undergraduate Initiative about evolution, Darwinism and creationism, receive a tour of the Moundville Native American archaeological site, and speak with geology and biology students.

The annual Phi Beta Kappa endowed lectureship, the Allen J. Going lecture, will be held in the spring.