Download 2016 charles darwin oration

CHARLES DARWIN UNIVERSITY: PUBLIC LECTURE
2016 CHARLES DARWIN
ORATION
Evolution in Action – Charles
Darwin and the Galápagos Finches
Professors Rosemary Grant and Peter Grant
Emeritus Professors at Princeton University
DARWIN
5.30pm – 7.30pm
Thursday 9 June 2016
University Theatre, Building Orange 3
Casuarina campus
Charles Darwin University
ALICE SPRINGS
5.30pm – 7.30pm
Monday 27 June 2016
Building 15.1.01, Lecture Theatre
Alice Springs campus
Charles Darwin University
RSVP: Monday 6 June 2016
E: [email protected]
T: 08 8946 6554
RSVP: Thursday 23 June 2016
E: [email protected]
T: 08 8946 6554
Summary
In his seminal book the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin established the scientific basis
for understanding how evolution of species occurs by natural selection. To explain how
species form he envisioned a three-step process: colonisation, involving the expansion of a
population into a new environment; divergence, when populations become adapted to novel
environmental conditions through natural selection; and finally, the formation of a barrier to
interbreeding between divergent lineages. Charles Darwin showed characteristic insight by
suggesting that investigations of what we now call very young adaptive species radiations
might provide windows through which we can view the evolutionary processes involved.
Since Darwin’s time the fields of genetics, behaviour and ecology have continued to
illuminate how and why species evolve. The 2016 Charles Darwin Oration by Professors
Rosemary and Peter Grant will present and discuss the progress that has been made in our
understanding of speciation with particular reference to the young radiation of Darwin’s
Finches in the Galápagos Archipelago. It will draw upon the results of the Grant’s more
than forty years of field study of finch populations on the Galápagos Islands, combined with
laboratory investigations of the molecular genetic basis of beak development in Darwin’s
finches.
Rosemary and Peter Grant
Rosemary and Peter Grant are Emeritus
Professors at Princeton University, USA. They
have spent more than 40 years studying Darwin’s
Finches on the Galápagos Islands, work that has
enabled them to demonstrate that the process
of evolution can be observed in a lifetime. They
jointly hold the appointment of Charles Darwin
Scholar at Charles Darwin University for 2016.
The Charles Darwin Oration is a major seminar
given by the resident Charles Darwin Scholar
and is open to the public.
Northern Territory Gouldian Finch
For further information about the
Charles Darwin Scholar Program go to:
www.cdu.edu.au/about/charles-darwin-scholar
A transcript of the lecture will be available at this
web site from 9 June.