2009-10 Series
September 3 2009
Dr. Jerry Coyne, University of Chicago
“Why Evolution is True”
Jerry Coyne is an influential evolutionary biologist whose primary research focus has been the mechanism of speciation, that is, the processes that cause populations of organisms to become separate species. He is the author or co-author of over 110 scientific publications and one scholarly book, primarily on the speciation of Drosophila, but also venturing into the speciation of birds, molecular evolution, and ecological genetics. He has weighed in on some of the thorniest and most controversial issues in evolutionary biology, including punctuated evolution and the genetic basis of morphological change. Dr. Coyne has also written over 80 columns, articles and book reviews for popular publications, including The New Republic, The NY Times Literary Supplement, Wired, The Skeptical Inquirer, Edge, and others, primarily in defense of the teaching of evolution and as a critic of creationism in all forms. He is the author of a recent book on this subject “Why Evolution is True.” He earned his B.S. degree from the College of William and Mary and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Jerry Coyne, University of Chicago
“Why Evolution is True”
Jerry Coyne is an influential evolutionary biologist whose primary research focus has been the mechanism of speciation, that is, the processes that cause populations of organisms to become separate species. He is the author or co-author of over 110 scientific publications and one scholarly book, primarily on the speciation of Drosophila, but also venturing into the speciation of birds, molecular evolution, and ecological genetics. He has weighed in on some of the thorniest and most controversial issues in evolutionary biology, including punctuated evolution and the genetic basis of morphological change. Dr. Coyne has also written over 80 columns, articles and book reviews for popular publications, including The New Republic, The NY Times Literary Supplement, Wired, The Skeptical Inquirer, Edge, and others, primarily in defense of the teaching of evolution and as a critic of creationism in all forms. He is the author of a recent book on this subject “Why Evolution is True.” He earned his B.S. degree from the College of William and Mary and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago.
October 29 2009
Dr. Jonathan Marks, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
“Darwin’s Ventriloquists”
Jonathan Marks is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research focuses on understanding human evolution and variation through critical, historical, and social studies of human genetics. With graduate degrees in both genetics and anthropology, Dr. Marks was uniquely situated to participate in and critique the florescence of molecular anthropology in the 1980s and 1990s leading up to the human genome project. He was a powerful spokesman offering scientific and ethical criticism of the Human Genome Diversity Project. As a result of that work, he became Vice Chairman of the Indigenous Peoples’ Council on Bio-Colonialism, although he may be one of the least indigenous people you will ever meet. Dr. Marks has authored many significant works, including his 1995 classic “Human Biodiversity,” in which he is as comfortable critiquing 18th and 19th century science as interpreting the meaning of DNA sequence data to explain the biological differences within and among human groups. His 2002 book “What it Means to be 98% Chimpanzee” won the 2003 W.W. Howells Book Award from the Biological Anthropology Section of the American Anthropological Association, and is the 2009 winner of the prestigious J. I. Staley Prize from the School of Advanced Research. In that book he attempts to disentangle the folk heredity that informs so much of evolutionary genetics today from reliable modern knowledge, that is to say, from science. Most recently he has published “Why I Am Not a Scientist,” a highly readable anthropology of science that should be read by scientists and lay persons alike. Dr. Marks has written and spoken extensively about the inappropriate use of race in genetics and medicine. In his presentation, “Darwin’s Ventriloquists”, he argues that scientific racism is a more serious problem for evolutionary biology than unscientific creationism is. Dr. Marks’s visit is co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology.
Dr. Jonathan Marks, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
“Darwin’s Ventriloquists”
Jonathan Marks is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research focuses on understanding human evolution and variation through critical, historical, and social studies of human genetics. With graduate degrees in both genetics and anthropology, Dr. Marks was uniquely situated to participate in and critique the florescence of molecular anthropology in the 1980s and 1990s leading up to the human genome project. He was a powerful spokesman offering scientific and ethical criticism of the Human Genome Diversity Project. As a result of that work, he became Vice Chairman of the Indigenous Peoples’ Council on Bio-Colonialism, although he may be one of the least indigenous people you will ever meet. Dr. Marks has authored many significant works, including his 1995 classic “Human Biodiversity,” in which he is as comfortable critiquing 18th and 19th century science as interpreting the meaning of DNA sequence data to explain the biological differences within and among human groups. His 2002 book “What it Means to be 98% Chimpanzee” won the 2003 W.W. Howells Book Award from the Biological Anthropology Section of the American Anthropological Association, and is the 2009 winner of the prestigious J. I. Staley Prize from the School of Advanced Research. In that book he attempts to disentangle the folk heredity that informs so much of evolutionary genetics today from reliable modern knowledge, that is to say, from science. Most recently he has published “Why I Am Not a Scientist,” a highly readable anthropology of science that should be read by scientists and lay persons alike. Dr. Marks has written and spoken extensively about the inappropriate use of race in genetics and medicine. In his presentation, “Darwin’s Ventriloquists”, he argues that scientific racism is a more serious problem for evolutionary biology than unscientific creationism is. Dr. Marks’s visit is co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology.
November 12 2009
Dr. Robert Richardson, University of Cincinnati
“The Natural History of Morality”
Robert C. Richardson is the Charles Phelps Taft Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, and the Gervinus Fellow at the Universität Osnabrück. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Colorado in 1971; he received his M.A. in 1972 and Ph.D., with Honors, in 1977, both from the University of Chicago. He has been a visiting professor within the Department of Molecular Cell Physiology at the Free University of Amsterdam during 2003 and 2004, and was the Mercator Guest Professor at the Universität Osnabrück during 2005.
Dr. Richardson’s research specialities 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. With William Bechtel, he published Discovering Complexity: Decomposition and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993); the second edition will be issued by MIT Press in 2010.
Dr. Robert Richardson, University of Cincinnati
“The Natural History of Morality”
Robert C. Richardson is the Charles Phelps Taft Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, and the Gervinus Fellow at the Universität Osnabrück. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Colorado in 1971; he received his M.A. in 1972 and Ph.D., with Honors, in 1977, both from the University of Chicago. He has been a visiting professor within the Department of Molecular Cell Physiology at the Free University of Amsterdam during 2003 and 2004, and was the Mercator Guest Professor at the Universität Osnabrück during 2005.
Dr. Richardson’s research specialities 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. With William Bechtel, he published Discovering Complexity: Decomposition and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993); the second edition will be issued by MIT Press in 2010.
December 3 2009
Dr. Daniel Povinelli, University of Louisiana – Lafayette
“Humanizing the Human Mind”
Daniel Povinelli became interested in studying the mental abilities of chimpanzees when he was 15 years old, after reading a popular article about their ability to recognize themselves in mirrors. His interests led him to receive an undergraduate degree in physical anthropology and zoology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1986, and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1991. In 1991, he established a set of behavioral/psychological laboratories at the University of Louisiana to compare the intellectual abilities of humans and chimpanzees. With the support of the James S. McDonnell Foundation, in 1999 these laboratories became the Cognitive Evolution Group. 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, an NSF 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.
Dr. Daniel Povinelli, University of Louisiana – Lafayette
“Humanizing the Human Mind”
Daniel Povinelli became interested in studying the mental abilities of chimpanzees when he was 15 years old, after reading a popular article about their ability to recognize themselves in mirrors. His interests led him to receive an undergraduate degree in physical anthropology and zoology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1986, and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1991. In 1991, he established a set of behavioral/psychological laboratories at the University of Louisiana to compare the intellectual abilities of humans and chimpanzees. With the support of the James S. McDonnell Foundation, in 1999 these laboratories became the Cognitive Evolution Group. 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, an NSF 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.
January 14 2010
Dr. Carlos Bustamante, Cornell University
“Evolutionary Theory in the Age of Genomics”
Carlos D. Bustamante is Professor of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology at Cornell University. His research focuses on analyzing genome wide patterns of variation within and between species to address fundamental questions in evolutionary biology, anthropology, and medical genetics. His group works on a variety of organisms and model systems ranging from humans and other primates to domesticated plant and animals to large scale simulations of microevolution. Much of his research is at the interface of computational biology, mathematical genetics, and genomics and is funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Dr. Carlos Bustamante, Cornell University
“Evolutionary Theory in the Age of Genomics”
Carlos D. Bustamante is Professor of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology at Cornell University. His research focuses on analyzing genome wide patterns of variation within and between species to address fundamental questions in evolutionary biology, anthropology, and medical genetics. His group works on a variety of organisms and model systems ranging from humans and other primates to domesticated plant and animals to large scale simulations of microevolution. Much of his research is at the interface of computational biology, mathematical genetics, and genomics and is funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.