LEADING AUTHORITIES ON ANIMAL BEHAVIOR AND EVOLUTION TO SPEAK AT BARD COLLEGE ON OCTOBER 18 AND OCTOBER 25 Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Continues with Cornell Scientists Dr. Thomas Eisner on October 18 and Dr. Paul Sherman on October 25
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Two renowned authorities on animal behavior and members of Cornell University's Department of Neurobiology and Behavior will be speaking at Bard College as part of the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series. Dr. Thomas Eisner will present "Better Living (and Loving . . .) in the Insect World" on Thursday, October 18. Dr. Paul Sherman will deliver a lecture titled "Spice Use and Morning Sickness as Adaptations to Protect Us from Food" on Thursday, October 25. Both lectures are free and open to the public and will take place in the Bertelsmann Campus Center Multipurpose Room at 7:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served after the lectures.
Dr. Eisner, who will be speaking about the chemical interactions of insects, is a world authority on animal behavior, ecology, and evolution, and a pioneer in the field of chemical ecology. He is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Chemical Ecology at Cornell University and director of the Cornell Institute for Research in Chemical Ecology. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Society, Dr. Eisner is also an active conservationist and has played a key role in efforts to preserve wilderness areas in Florida and Texas.
Dr. Sherman is an evolutionary biologist whose research is focused on the role of natural selection in the social behavior of animals, including humans. He has conducted several widely publicized studies that suggest both morning sickness and the use of spices in cooking are evolutionary mechanisms aimed at shielding people from food-borne pathogens. Dr. Sherman is best known for his studies of the social behavior of the naked mole-rat.
The last scientist lecture of the fall semester will take place on Tuesday, November 27 at 7:30 p.m. with Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, a primate behaviorist and anthropologist at the University of California, Davis, who will present "Maternal Love and Ambivalence in the Pleistocene, the 18th Century, and Right Now."
Lectures scheduled for the spring 2002 semester include "What Drives Evolution?", presented by Niles Eldredge of the American Museum of Natural History, on Saturday, March 9, at 3 p.m., and "The Evolution of Infectious Disease," presented by Paul Ewald of Amherst College, on Wednesday, March 20, at 7:30 p.m.
All lectures are free and open to the public and will be held in the Bertelsmann Campus Center Multipurpose Room. For more information about the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series, call 845-758-7581.
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