Darwin & Kitzmiller Lectures
The 2024 Darwin Lecture: Dr. Luke Harmon discussing "A World Without Species."
Every year, OCEES sponsors presentations by world-class researchers in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. These are our “Darwin Speakers,” in honor of the achievements of Charles Darwin. Most years, the Darwin Lecture is held on or near Darwin’s birthday (February 12, 1809). In addition to their presentation, Darwin Speakers interact extensively with undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty at various sponsored events. Past Darwin Speakers are listed below.
From 2009–2015, OCEES also sponsored an annual Kitzmiller Lecture. This was in honor of the 11 parents from the Dover, Pennsylvania school district who filed a lawsuit in 2005 (Kitzmiller v. Dover) that put intelligent design on trial. The plaintiffs successfully argued that intelligent design is creationism, in violation of the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Attacks on the teaching of evolution are always ongoing. Past Kitzmiller Lectures are listed at the bottom of this page.
Darwin Lectures
| Year | Darwin | Institution | Department | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021- 2023 | No speakers due to pandemic. | |||
| 2020 | Janet Browne | Harvard | Department of the History of Science | Commemorating Darwin |
| 2019 | Tracy Langkilde | Penn State | Department of Biology | Evolutionary responses of animals to environmental challenges: coping with noisy landscapes & invasive predators |
| 2018 | Andrea Wulf | Historian & Writer | The invention of nature | |
| 2017 | Adam Summers | University of Washington | Friday Harbor Laboratories | From Fining Nemo to finding patents – the natural history of the sea as inspiration |
| 2016 | Neil Shubin | University of Chicago | Department of Organismal Biology & Anatomy | Finding your inner fish |
| 2015 | Anthony Herrel | Muséum National s'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France | Départment Écologie et Gestion de la Biodiversité | Galapagos finches, Croatian lizards, and evolution on ecological time scales |
| 2014 | Mike Webster | Cornell University | Department of Neurobiology & Behavior | Darwin and misperceptions: what evolution isn't |
| 2013 | Patricia Wright | Stony Brook University | Department of Anthrolology + Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology | If Darwin had gone to Madagascar |
| 2012 | Ross McPhee | American Museum of Natural History | Department of Mammalogy | Fireballs from heaven, climate change, diseases, or men with spears: explaining (or not) ice age extinctions |
| 2011 | Owen Lovejoy | Kent State University | Department of Anthrolopology | Ardi, Lucy and the origins of humans |
| 2010 | David Hillis | University of Texas | Department of Integrative Biology | Applications of the tree of life |
| 2010 | Catherine Badgley | University of Michigan | Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology | From fossils to food: a Darwinian perspective on the modern biodiversity crisis |
| 2009 | Nina Jablonski | PennState | Department of Anthropology | Darwin's birthday suit: the evolution of human skin and skin color |
| 2008 | Ken Dial | University of Montana | College of Humanities and Sciences | What use is half a wing in the ecology and evolution of flight? |
Past Kitzmiller Lectures
| Year | Kitzmiller | Institution | Department | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Patricia Kelley | University of North Carolina Wilmington | Department of Geography and Geology | Evolution and creation: conflicting or compatible |
| 2012 | Jacque Gauthier | Yale University | Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences | Not your parents’ dinosaurs: the role of crown dinosaurs and stem-birds in evolutionary theory |
| 2011 | Richard Lenski | Michigan State University | Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics | Evolution in action: bugs and bytes |
| 2010 | Elliot Sober | University of Wisconsin-Madison | Department of Philosophy | Darwin and intelligent design |
| 2009 | Kevin Padian | University of California, Berkeley | Department of Integrative Biology | Darwin, Dover, and intelligent design |