Evolutionary Biologist, Author Richard Dawkins to Speak About “The Fact of Evolution”

The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Math, Science, and Technology will welcome Richard Dawkins, M.A., D.Phil., as the next lecturer in the college’s Distinguished Speakers Series. Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and author, will present a talk titled “The Fact of Evolution” on Thursday, Feb. 17, in the Arena at the Don Taft University Center, beginning at 7:00 p.m. His talk corresponds with the college’s 2010–2011 academic theme of identity.

Dawkins is a former professor for public understanding of science at Oxford University and an emeritus fellow of New College—University of Oxford. He has established The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, whose mission is “to support scientific education, critical thinking, and evidence-based understanding of the natural world in the quest to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance, and human suffering.”

Dawkins has published 10 books on the value of rigorous scientific analysis, the ancestry of human life, and the blind force of physics, among other related subjects. His most recent release, The Greatest Show on Earth (2010), brings Charles Darwin’s arguments into the 21st Century—and has appeared on best-seller lists around the world.

In 1976, Dawkins came to prominence with his book The Selfish Gene, which popularized the gene-centered view of evolution—a theory that claims genes “care” only about themselves and the creation of more genes. His 1982 book The Extended Phenotype introduced into the field of evolutionary biology the influential concept that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not limited to the organism to which they belong and can stretch far into the environment.

This Distinguished Speakers Series lecture is free, but tickets are required for admission. Tickets are now available to Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences students. All NSU students, faculty, and staff members may pick up tickets beginning Monday, Feb. 7.

Tickets can be picked up in the college’s Office of the Dean, located in the Mailman-Hollywood Building, second floor. Please note: tickets are limited to two (2) per person. For more information, call (954) 262-8236 or visit www.fcas.nova.edu/articles/dss/richard_dawkins.

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