Living World

http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/marinebio/livingworld

February 12, 2010 is DARWIN DAY

We celebrate Darwin’s 201st Birthday with a Special Lecture on the
Achievements of Evolutionary Biology, presented by the renowned
Evolutionary biologist

Dr. Douglas Futuyma,

Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolution
Stony Brook University

"Evolutionary Biology: 150 Years of Progress"

Friday, February 12, 7:30 P.M.Student Activities Center Auditorium (note meeting location!)

What progress has been achieved in evolutionary biology since the publication of On the Origin of Species, 150 years ago? Modern evolutionary biology has both affirmed all the major hypotheses in Darwin's evolutionary theory, and progressed so far that Darwin would not understand most of what we discuss today. In the 1930's and 1940's, the new science of genetics was joined with Darwin's theory in an "Evolutionary Synthesis" that has remained the framework of modern evolutionary thought. The growth of molecular biology and technical advances in computation and information processing have enabled extraordinary progress. I will consider some of the challenges to the Evolutionary Synthesis, and I conclude that its major tenets remain largely intact and have served as the framework of an extraordinary expansion of knowledge and understanding of evolution. Evolutionary biology is increasingly fulfilling its promise as the unifying theory of the biological sciences.

Douglas J. Futuyma is a Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University. Born in New York City, he received his B.S. from Cornell University (1963) and his Ph. D. from the University of Michigan (1969). His research concerns the evolution of interactions between species, especially herbivorous insects and their host plants. He is the author of the textbooks Evolutionary Biology (3 editions) and Evolution (2005), and of Science on Trial: The Case for Evolution (1982, 1995), which concerned the conflict between science and creationism. He is the editor of Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, and has been the editor of Evolution and president of the Society for the Study of Evolution, the American Society of Naturalists, and the American Institute of Biological Sciences. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fulbright Fellow, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. His avocational pleasures include classical music and opera, birding, and travel.