February 08, 2016

Darwin Week activities begin Tuesday

Activities for the 11th annual “Darwin Week” include two lectures by Scott V. Edwards, professor and curator of ornithology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. The events also include art, and research and film discussion in honor of Charles Darwin’s 207th birthday on Friday, Feb. 12. 

Darwin Week runs Tuesday through Friday, Feb. 9-12, with the Edwards’ keynote lecture, "Bird Evolution -- from Dinosaurs to DNA," at 7:30 p.m., Friday, in the SIU School of Law Hiram H. Lesar Building Auditorium. 

The events are free and open to the public 

Edwards is the Alexander Aggassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Edwards will also present a scientific lecture, “Using Natural Experiments and Next-Generation Sequencing to Link Genotype and Phenotype in Birds,” at noon in Parkinson Hall’s Brown Auditorium, Room 124. 

On Tuesday, Department of Plant Biology faculty Nancy Garwood, Kurt Neubig and Sedonia Sipes will lead a discussion after a film screening of “The Botany of Desire.” The event starts at 7 p.m. in Morris Library’s John C. Guyon Auditorium. 

Other events include a mini symposium at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Life Science Auditorium, and a reception and award ceremony for a photo and art contest at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, in the Student Center’s second-floor art alley.