Jan. 25 Human Evolution Lecture Begins Science Series

1-21-97

University Park, Pa. -- "On Becoming Human" is the topic of the spring semester 1997 Penn StateLectures on the Frontiers of Science. Designed for the enjoyment and education of central Pennsylvania residents, the lectures will take place on six consecutive Saturday mornings from 11 a.m. to 12 noon on the Penn State University Park Campus.

The first lecture in the series, "An Introduction to Human Evolution: The Fossil Record, Dating Methods, and the Pieces of the Human Evolutionary Mosaic," will be given on Saturday, Jan. 25, in 101 Thomas Building by Alan Walker, distinguished professor of anthropology and biology at Penn State. Walker is one of the world's foremost experts on the evolution of primates and humans. Walker will give an outline of the fossil record of humans and their extinct relatives. He will present evidence that humans developed their physical characteristics in a mosaic fashion.

The remaining events in the spring 1997 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science include:

February 1, "Discoveries and Discoverers: How the Sequence of Discoveries and the Personalities of the Discoverers Changed the Field," by Pat Shipman, adjunct associate professor of anthropology at Penn State, in 101 Thomas Building.

February 8, "Histories of Human Genes and Populations: Signatures of Ancient Population Dynamics in Gene Differences," by Henry Harpending, distinguished professor of anthropology and human development at Penn State, in 101 Thomas Building.

February 15, "Human History as Seen Through Genetics: Ancient and Modern DNA Sequences Reveal New Aspects of Our History," by Svante Paabo, professor of biology at the University of Munich in Germany, in 101 Thomas Building.

February 22, "Behavior from Bones: The Diet, Locomotion, and Sex Lives of Our Ancestors," by Alan Walker, distinguished professor of anthropology and biology at Penn State, in 101 Thomas Building.

March 1, "The Evolution of the Mind: Speculations from Contemporary Biology Based on the Musings of a Young British Victorian Naturalist," by Jeffrey A. Kurland, associate professor of anthropology and human development at Penn State, in 111 Wartik Laboratory.

The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science are sponsored by the Penn State Eberly College of Science. Parking is available at the HUB Deck parking garage on Shortlidge Road. For more information, contact the Penn State Eberly College of Science Office of Public Information by telephone at 863-8453 or 863-4682, or by e-mail at science@psu.edu.

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Contact: Barbara Kennedy telephone at 863-8453 or 863-4682, or by e-mail at science@psu.edu