FOR MORE INFORMATION

CONTACT:  Mary Anthony

mary.anthony@trinity.edu

Oct. 25, 2010

Biologist to Discuss Evolution during DeCoursey Lecture Series at Trinity University

SAN ANTONIO – Edmund “Butch” Brodie, director of Mountain Lake Biological Station and a professor of biology at the University of Virginia, will present “The Parable of the Coffeepot and the Newt: How Answers Beget Questions in Evolutionary Biology” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, in Laurie Auditorium.  His presentation is free and open to the public and a part of the 2010-2011 Trinity University DeCoursey Lecture Series.

Brodie has been asking questions about evolutionary ecology for 25 years, working on everything from weedy plants to horses, and in habitats from the Pacific Northwest to Caribbean beaches. He is best known for work on predator prey arms races between newts and snakes, but he is broadly interested in understanding the processes of evolution that generate the diversity of organisms that we see around us.

His lecture will tell a story of how scientists arrive at the research questions they ask through a snowballing cycle of observation, discovery, and uncovering of new questions, relying on his work on the coevolutionary arms race as the primary narrative. 

Doors to Laurie Auditorium will open at 6:15 p.m. on the evening of the lecture.  The DeCoursey Lecture Series is made possible by a gift from the late Gen. Elbert DeCoursey and Mrs. DeCoursey of San Antonio.

For more information, contact Trinity’s Office of Academic Affairs at 210-999-8201.

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