CFI Michigan hosts Darwin Day Lecture featuring MSU professor

MSU Professor Jeffrey Conner

By Jennifer Beahan

Center for Inquiry Michigan

 

In celebration of Darwin Day, the anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, CFI Michigan welcomes Professor Jeffrey Conner to speak on “Evolution in Your Lifetime” which will highlight his lab’s research on rapid evolution in changing environments. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, February 13, 2019 at 7:00 PM at 254 E. Fulton Street in Grand Rapids, MI.

 

“Most people think of evolution as a slow process that occurs over millions of years,” says Professor Conner, “but research has repeatedly demonstrated that evolution can be very rapid when environments change. This rapid adaptation can be both good and bad from a human standpoint.”

 

Professor Conner will offer examples of these types of rapid evolution and the effects it can have, not only on the environment, but human society as well, based on research conducted at the W. K. Kellogg Biological Station. He will also explain how all life on earth depends on the process of evolutionary adaptation, because species that are not well adapted go extinct.

 

Jeffrey K. Conner is a Professor of Plant Biology and the Interim Director of Michigan State University’s W.K. Kellogg Biological Station. He received his Ph.D from Cornell and his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard. His research focuses on rapid evolutionary adaptation to changing environments. He co-wrote A Primer of Ecological Genetics with Dan Hartl. Conner is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and has received graduate student and junior faculty mentoring awards from MSU, along with many other distinctions.

 

This event is FREE and open to the public. Suggested donation of $5. For more details, directions, and to learn about CFI Michigan, visit cfimichigan.org.

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