Dr. David Sloan Wilson
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Thursday, September 12, 2019
Dr. David Sloan Wilson - Binghampton University "This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution" 7:30 PM - 2008 North Lawn Hall For more information about this talk, contact Tony Buhr |
Evolution already serves as a unifying theoretical framework for the biological sciences. However, the Darwinian revolution won't be complete until it makes sense of everything associated with the words "human", "culture" and "policy" in addition to "biology". I will summarize this argument and focus on practical applications for managing cultural evolution to achieve our positive societal goals. David Sloan Wilson has made foundational contributions to evolutionary theory and its many applications to human affairs. He founded the first campus-wide evolutionary studies program at Binghamton University in 2003, which became a model for similar programs as SUNY New Paltz, the University of Alabama, and elsewhere. He also co-founded the Evolution Institute in 2007, which formulated public policy from an evolutionary perspective. His most recent book, This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution, was published by Pantheon Press in 2019.
Dr. Günter Wagner
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Thursday, November 7, 2019
Dr. Günter Wagner - Yale University "How the cow evolved to beat cancer malignancy, and how humans can learn from it" 7:30 PM - 2008 North Lawn Hall For more information about this presentation, contact Jason Pienaar |
Günter Wagner is the Alison Richard Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. He is a chemical engineer by training and studied zoology and mathematics at the University of Vienna where he earned a Ph. D. in zoology. From 1985 till 1991 he was at the Department of Zoology at the University of Vienna, Austria and in 1991 joined Yale’s Department of Biology. In 1997 he became the first chair of Yale’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Since 2010 he is a member of the Yale Systems Biology Institute. His research interests include population genetics, the evolution of gene regulation, the evolution of pregnancy, and the evolutionary medicine of cancer and female sexuality. GPW is a Mac Arthur Fellow, member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a corresponding foreign member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Eileen Hebets
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Thursday, January 23, 2020
Dr. Eileen Hebets - University of Nebraska, Lincoln "Life on Eight Legs - How Arachnids can Inspire Science and Discovery" 7:30 PM - North Lawn Hall For more information about this talk, contact Laura Reed |
Eileen Hebets is a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) in the School of Biological Sciences and a courtesy faculty member in the Department of Entomology at UNL. Her research group uses arachnids to study a diversity of evolutionary themes, including (i) the evolution and function of animal communication, (ii) animal mating systems, (iii) animal sensory systems, and (iv) the neural basis of complex behavior. Hebets is also a pioneer of informal science education, capitalizing on arachnids’ natural charisma to help students of all ages engage and persist in science. She has received nearly continuous funding for her science as well as her science communication and informal science education and has held many significant society roles, including her most recent election as the 2nd president elect for the Animal Behavior Society. Hebets currently teaches Animal Communication, Ecology and Evolution and Arachnids, and Communicating Science through Outreach – a course in which UNL students run after-school science clubs at local high-need middle schools. In 2017, Hebets received the University’s Innovation, Development and Engagement Award, the system’s most prestigious award for using academic expertise to enrich the broader community.
Dr. Trisha Witkopp
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Thursday, February 20, 2020
Dr. Trisha Wittkopp - University of Michigan “Evolution in Black and White: How Fruit Flies Changes Their Spots and Stripes” 7:30 PM - North Lawn Hall For more information about this talk, contact Laura Reed |
Patricia Wittkopp is Sally L. Allen and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology as well as Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan. She studies the genetic basis of phenotypic differences, with an emphasis on the regulation of gene expression. Molecular and developmental biology, population and quantitative genetics, genomics and bioinformatics are integrated in her work. Patricia Wittkopp received her B.S. from the University of Michigan working with Greg Gibson, a PhD from the University of Wisconsin working with Sean Carroll, and did postdoctoral work at Cornell University working with Andy Clark. Dr. Wittkopp was a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellow, an Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow, a March of Dimes Starter Scholar, and currently serves as Senior Editor at eLife and Associate Editor at Molecular Biology and Evolution and GENETICS. She has recently received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the Margaret Dayhoff Mid-Career Award from the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Dr. Holly Dunsworth
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POSTPONED - Reschedule TBD
Dr. Holly Dunsworth - University of Rhode Island "Why are women shorter than men? The surprising evolutionary reasons behind sex differences in human height" 7:30 PM - North Lawn Hall For more information about this talk, contact Mandy Guitar |
Holly Dunsworth is fascinated by untold and unknown stories of human evolution. She is a biological anthropologist at the University of Rhode Island, has performed paleontological work in Kenya on some of the most ancient fossil apes and humans, and is currently studying the physiology of living primates to help solve mysteries about the evolution of human reproduction, growth, and development. She is published in The Washington Post, Aeon, Scientific American, Discover, New York Magazine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature, Journal of Human Evolution, Evolutionary Anthropology, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, The Evolution Institute, SAPIENS, and more. Since reading her essay “I Am Evolution” on NPR Weekend Edition, Holly has endeavored to share biological anthropology with all the humans that inspire and benefit from the scientific study of human origins.