Professor Sean B. Carroll, prolific science writer and "evo devo" researcher, will speak on genes and evolution on April 18.
Levine-de Beer Genetics Lecture to explore idea of DNA as ultimate forensic record of three billion years of evolution
Dr. Sean B. Carroll, a pioneer of the field of evolutionary developmental biology who is widely considered to be its leading figure, will deliver the 2013 Louis Levine – Gabriella de Beer Lecture in Genetics at The City College of New York at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 18. He will speak in The Great Hall of Shepard Hall, 160 Convent Avenue, New York. The lecture, titled “The Making of the Fittest: DNA and a New Golden Age of Evolutionary Science,” is free and open to the public with an RSVP (see below.) A reception will follow.
Professor Carroll is the vice president for science education of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a professor of molecular biology and genetics at the University of Wisconsin. His talk will explore the idea of DNA as the ultimate forensic record, chronicling three billion years of evolution.
He will explain how evidence of a species’ history is documented within DNA and how precise genetic changes allow creatures to adapt to changing and challenging environments. He will show that life evolved along with the Earth and recorded these changes in genes, and that Darwin’s principles of natural selection shaped this history.
About Dr. Sean B. Carroll
Professor Carroll’s field of evolutionary developmental biology, nicknamed “evo devo,” is the study of how genes control the patterning of animals’ bodies and how this influences the species’ development and evolution. Genes play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity through shifting the developmental patterns in large and small ways. The Carroll Laboratory deciphers how changes in DNA regulatory sequences control the formation, number, and ultimate shape and structure of body parts, and, therefore, play a central role in the evolution of animal forms.
Professor Carroll’s books include “Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo” (W. W. Norton & Co., 2005), “The Making of the Fittest” (W. W. Norton & Co., 2006), and “Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species” (Mariner Books, 2009), which was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award in nonfiction. He also writes a column for Science Times section of “The New York Times”.
He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His other awards and honors include the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Sciences, the Stephen Jay Gould Prize for the advancement of the public understanding of evolution, and the National Association of Biology Teachers’ Distinguished Service Award.
About the Louis Levine – Gabriella de Beer Lecture in Genetics
Gabriella de Beer established the Louis Levine – Gabriella de Beer Lecture in Genetics in memory of her husband, Professor Louis Levine, who taught in the Department of Biology and the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education. A graduate of City College, he earned his PhD in population genetics under the late, great evolutionary geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky at Columbia University.
Professor Levine’s research focused on population studies of Drosophila and the behavioral genetics of mice. The event is administered through The City College Fund. The City College Fund raises money to support programs and activities at CCNY through annual giving, special scholarship projects and fundraising events.
Please RSVP by phone or email: 212-650-7192,
Cly@CityCollegeFund.org
On the Internet:
- The Carroll Laboratory
- Carroll HHMI Investigator
MEDIA CONTACT
Jessa Netting
p: 212.650.5310