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WAUKESHA – In this 150th
year since Darwin published his ground-breaking On the
Origin of Species, today’s leading scientist in evolutionary
research will give the Distinguished Lecturer presentation at the
University of Wisconsin-Waukesha on Tuesday, April 28. Sean
B. Carroll, University of Wisconsin professor of molecular biology
and genetics and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute at UW-Madison, will speak on “Remarkable Creatures: Epic
Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species,” which also is
the title of his most recent book, published in Feb. 2009.
Sponsored by the campus Lectures
& Fine Arts Committee, the lecture will be at 7 p.m. in the
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, located in the Fine Arts Center on campus at
1500 N. University Dr., Waukesha. Tickets are $6, and students with
an ID will be admitted for $3. For ticket information, phone (262)
521-5212. There is free parking in all university lots.
Inspired by the exceptional
lives and adventures of historic figures who built the groundwork on
which modern science rests, Carroll felt impelled to tell the
stories of such pioneering naturalists as Darwin, Dubois, and the
Leakeys. He presents not only a fascinating history but a daring
challenge in a slow crescendo of understanding. The book,
Remarkable Creatures, came to publication 200 years after
Darwin’s birth in Feb. 1809.
“I think we are in a new Golden
Age of evolutionary science akin to those first decades of the
Darwinian revolution,” Carroll said in an interview.
Author of two other books The
Making of the Fittest and Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The
New Science of Evo Devo, Carroll has been featured in newspapers
and magazines, including Time, US News & World Report, The New
York Times, Discover, and Natural History. In addition,
he co-authored two textbooks, From DNA to Diversity: Molecular
Genetics and the Evolution of Animal Design and Genetic
Analysis. He also has spoken at many venues, among them the
American Museum of Natural History and the Field Museum in Chicago.
His favorite topic, he says, is how molecular biology and natural
history intersect. “To understand how [what exists] came to be . . .
makes for a deeper and much more complete understanding of evolution
and the history of life.”
Carroll graduated from
Washington University, St. Louis, with a BA in biology and earned a
Ph.D. in immunology at Tufts Medical School. He did postdoctoral
research at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
UW-Waukesha has the largest
enrollment among the 13 freshman-sophomore University of Wisconsin Colleges campuses. For information about
programs, admission or financial aid, contact the Student Services
office at 888-2UW-WAUK (888-289-9285) or visit the Web at
www.waukesha.uwc.edu.
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