Dr. Michael Ruse Download a high-resolution version

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – A nationally recognized expert on Darwinism will kick-off a two-year series of public lectures on evolution to be held at The University of Alabama Oct. 11. Dr. Michael Ruse will speak on “The Evolution-Creation Struggle” at 7:30 p.m. in the Biology Building auditorium, room 127, on the UA campus.

Ruse specializes in the philosophy of biology and the history and philosophy of science, and he served as an expert witness in the Arkansas creationism trial of 1981. He has appeared on the CNN television network and is the author of numerous books on Darwinism, evolution, and the relationship between science and religion.

The series, Alabama Lectures on Life’s Evolution, known as ALLELE, will feature six experts lecturing on the science and implications of evolution and evolutionary theory during the fall of 2005 and spring of 2006. The series will continue in the 2006-2007 academic year.

“The purpose of the series is to further public understanding of evolution and evolutionary theory and its appropriate place in education and society,” said Dr. Richard Richards, assistant professor of philosophy and a member of the UA faculty working group that is organizing the series. Lectures will be designed for a non-technical audience. They are free and open to the public.

The series is funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation and by the UA College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Education, and the departments of anthropology, biology, chemistry, geological sciences, and the Blount Undergraduate Initiative, all in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Ruse, formerly professor of philosophy at the University of Guelph in Canada, is the author of the books “Monad to Man: The Concept of Progress in Evolutionary Biology,” “Biology and The Foundation of Ethics,” “Mystery of Mysteries: Is Evolution a Social Construction?” “Can a Darwinian be a Christian? The Relationship Between Science and Religion,” and “Darwin and Design: Does Evolution Have a Purpose?” and others. His most recent book, “The Evolution-Creation Struggle,” was just released.

Much of his career has been directed toward the concepts that scientific inquiries should focus on those things and processes we observe and experience and that the way to understand the world is through scientific law and evolutionary principles. He describes his own philosophical position as “evolutionary naturalism.”

All lectures will be held at 7:30 p.m. in 127 Biology Building Auditorium on the UA campus. Other speakers in the 2005-2006 ALLELE series are:

Dr. Jim Lacefield Download a high-resolution version

Nov. 10, 2005
Dr. Jim Lacefield
“Using Evidence from Alabama’s Geologic Record in Support of Teaching Concepts Related to Evolution and an Ancient and Dynamic Earth”

Educator Jim Lacefield will speak about Alabama’s rich and informative geologic record and how basic knowledge of the state’s rocks and fossils can help students understand the scientific evidence for organic evolution and the concept of a changing earth. He will summarize lines of evidence from Alabama’s geological record that document the existence of deep-time evolutionary changes.

Lacefield is an adjunct professor of biology and earth science at the University of North Alabama. He focuses on the development of strategies for integrating concepts in evolution into the science classroom and promoting the understanding of the geological evidence documenting an ancient and dynamic earth.

A science educator for more than 30 years, he wrote “Lost Worlds in Alabama Rocks: A Guide to the State’s Ancient Life and Landscapes,” a book designed to provide an overview of Alabama’s geological and paleontological records for teachers, students, and the general public. It has been adopted for use in science classes from the eighth grade through the undergraduate college levels and has been used at eight universities as a text supplement for introductory geology and biology courses.

Dr. Patricia Kelley Download a high-resolution version

Jan. 19, 2006
Dr. Patricia Kelley
“Evolution and Creation: Conflicting or Compatible?”

Paleontologist Patricia Kelley will speak about the differences and commonalities between theories of evolution and creation. She specializes in the study of mollusk-fossils and is interested in the evolutionary process and the factors that control it.

She has conducted research to test the theory of punctuated equilibrium put forward by scientists Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould. It proposes that instead of a slow, continuous movement, evolution is characterized by long periods of standstill punctuated by episodes of fast development of new life forms.

Her current interest is in the field of evolutionary paleoecology, particularly the evolution of molluscan predator-prey systems. She is examining the hypothesis of escalation, which proposes that biological hazards such as predation have increased over the course of the Phanerozoic and that adaptation to those hazards has also increased. She has also involved middle school teachers and students in this research project.

She has served as president of the Paleontological Society and president of the Paleontological Research Institution.

Dr. Richard Lenski Download a high-resolution version

Feb. 23, 2006
Dr. Richard Lenski
“Experimental Evolution: Bugs and Bytes”

Ecologist Richard Lenski, the Hannah Professor of Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University, specializes in experimental evolution. He and his colleagues perform experiments using two different, fast-evolving systems – bacteria and digital organisms –to investigate the dynamics of evolution. Working in the lab with the bacterium Escherichia coli, Lenski and colleagues can track evolutionary changes in real time. In one experiment, bacteria have been evolving for over 30,000 generations now. The similarities and differences between the generations provide insight into the repeatability of evolution as well as the nature of evolutionary change.

His work has been published in the scientific journals Nature and Science. Lenski also collaborates on experiments using digital organisms – computer programs that replicate, mutate and evolve – and have demonstrated the evolutionary origins of complex new functions.

Dr. Kenneth Miller Download a high-resolution version

March 28, 2006
Dr. Kenneth Miller
“Devil in the Details: The Failure of ‘Intelligent Design’ "

Cell biologist Kenneth Miller is a professor at Brown University, where he teaches introductory biology and cell biology.

Miller has spoken and written widely on the debate between creationists and evolutionary biologist. He is the author of the 1999 book, “Finding Darwin’s God: a Scientists’ Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution.” He is known for defending biology and science in general, from what he considers misconstrued perceptions of the scientific literature and flawed arguments against evolution. As a Catholic, however, he also goes beyond the defense of science to defend theology from what he perceives as an undermining of the Christian faith by proponents of creationism and intelligent design.

His lecture will focus on the arguments made by proponents of creationism and intelligent design and why their examples of biochemical machines that exhibit "irreducible complexity" are in fact not irreducible and thus could have evolved by the process of natural selection.

With his collaborator, Joseph Levine, he has written a series of general biology textbooks aimed at high school and college students.

Dr. Jeffrey H. Schwartz Download a high-resolution version

April 13, 2006
Dr. Jeffrey H. Schwartz
“What's Wrong with Paleoanthropology, and Can We Fix It? Examples from the Human Fossil Record”

Anthropologist Jeffrey H. Schwartz has been sought out by the national media for commentary on the “Hobbit” discovery (Homo floresiensis), an early form of human, and on the forensic reconstruction of George Washington’s physical appearance.

He will speak on his recent writings in evolutionary biology, which are concerned with developing a model of evolution that applies to both plants and animals.

His research focuses on three areas: evolutionary biology and the origin and diversification of extinct and existing primates, human and faunal skeletal analysis of archaeological remains, and dentofacial growth and development in man and other mammals.

He is the author of books on human skeletal biology, “What the Bones Tell Us” and “Skeleton Keys,” and on human evolution, “Extinct Humans and The Red Ape: Orangutans and Human Origins.” His most recent work has involved trips to photograph fossil collections all over the world in support of his co-edited four-volume series, “The Human Fossil Record,” the most complete compendium published on human evolution.

He is a professor of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh and a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History.

More information on the Alabama Lectures on Life’s Evolution series is on the Web at www.bama.ua.edu/~evolution.

The College of Arts and Sciences is UA’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in Alabama with 6,600 students and 360 faculty members. College students have won numerous national awards including Rhodes, Truman, and Goldwater scholarships and membership on USA Today’s Academic All-American teams.