Duke University | The Provost Office

Provost's Lecture Series - Previous Speakers

October 27, 2005 - Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The Expanding Science of Evolution and Why It Matters Sean Carroll, University of Wisconsin, Madison Professor of Molecular Biology, Genetics and Medical Genetics B.A. Biology, Washington University in St. Louis Ph.D., immunology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston Member - American Association for the Advancement of Science Presidential Young Investigators Award, National Science Foundation Shaw Scientist Award, Milwaukee Foundation Time Magazine's 50 Future Leaders 40 and under in 1994 Herbert W. Dickerman Award, Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health
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Research Fields:
Drosophila
Developmental Genetics
Population/Evolution
Ph.D., Tufts University School of Medicine, 1983
Postdoctoral Research: University of Colorado, Boulder

Research Interests:
Genetics of animal development; pattern formation and morphological evolution; immunochemistry and biological imaging

Research Description
During animal development, cells of the growing embryo become organized into structures of greatly different sizes, shapes, and functions. Genetic and embryological studies of a model animal, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, have shown that the specification of the overall body plan, the formation of complex arrays of tissues and organs, and the assignment of individual cell types occurs in a highly ordered temporal sequence and spatial pattern. The search for genes that are necessary for the proper organization of the Drosophila embryo and the formation of adult structures has identified a modest number of loci which affect specific aspects of development. Research in the Carroll laboratory is currently focused on the developmental regulatory mechanisms that control the formation and patterning of complex structures. This body of work provides the conceptual and material foundation for studying long-standing problems in evolutionary biology such as the evolution of novelty and the genetic basis of body plan diversification.
Representative Publications Gompel, N., Prud'homme, B., Wittkopp, P.J., Kassner, V.A., and Carroll. S.B. 2005. Chance caught on the wing: cis-regulatory evolution and the origin of pigment patterns in Drosophila. Nature. 433:481-487. Carroll, S.B. 2005. Evolution at two levels: on genes and form, PLoS Biology. 3:1159. Nature, 433:481-487. Gompel, N. and Carroll, S.B. 2003. Genetic mechanisms and constraints governing the evolution of correlated traits in drosophilid flies. Nature. 424:931-935. Hittinger, C.T., Rokas, A., Carroll, S.B. 2004. Parallel inactivation of multiple GAL pathway genes and ecological diversification in yeasts. PNAS. 101:14144-14149. Carroll, S.B., Grenier, J.K. and Weatherbee, S.D. 2005. From DNA to Diversity: Molecular Genetics and the Evolution of Animal Design, Blackwell Scientific, Malden, MA. Second Edition

Dec. 8, 2005 - God After Darwin: Evolution and the Question of Divine Providence John F Haught, Georgetown University Distinguished Research Professor Ph.D. Catholic University of America
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Professor John Haught teaches in Georgetown's Department of Theology and was the chair of the department from 1990-1995. His courses include Religion and Ecology and Science and Religion, and his teaching and research interests focus especially on issues in science and religion, cosmology and theology, and religion and ecology.
John Haught Books. Deeper Than Darwin: The Prospect for Religion in the Age Of Evolution. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2003. Book: John Haught. Responses to 101 Questions on God and Evolution. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2001. Edited book: John Haught, ed. Science and Religion in Search of Cosmic Purpose. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001. Book: John Haught. God After Darwin: A Theology Of Evolution. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2000. Plus several more.
Jan. 26, 2006 - From Dayton to Dover: A Brief History of the Controversy over Teaching Evolution Edward J. Larson, University of Georgia B.A., Williams College J.D., Harvard University M.A., Ph.D., University of Wisconsin Ph.D., honoris causa, Ohio State University
Professional Biographical Information:
Edward J. Larson is the Talmadge Chair of Law and Russell Professor of American History at the University of Georgia and recipient of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History. His areas of expertise are: health care law, science and technology law, bioethics, property law and legal history.
An author of five books and over 60 published articles, Larson writes mostly about issues of law, science and medicine from a historical perspective. His first book, Trial and Error: The American Controversy Over Creation and Evolution (1985, expanded editions 1989 and 2002), chronicles the legal battles over teaching evolution in American public schools. His second book, Sex, Race, and Science: Eugenics in the Deep South (1995), examines the legislative history of eugenics. For his 1997 book, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion, Larson became the first sitting law professor to receive the Pulitzer Prize in History.
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February 7, 2006 - Darwin's Compass: How Evolution Discovers the Song of Creation Simon Conway Morris, University of Cambridge

Abbreviated curriculum vitae of Simon Conway Morris, B.Sc., M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S.
Permanent address: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ.
Telephone (01223) 333414/333400.
Fax: 01223 333450; e-mail: sc113@esc.cam.ac.uk
Date and place of birth 6 November 1951; Carshalton, Surrey
Nationality: British

General
1969-72 - University of Bristol: First Class Honours in Geology (B.Sc.).
1975 - Elected Fellow (Title A) of St John's College.
1976 - University of Cambridge: Ph.D.
1979 - Appointed lecturer in Dept. of Earth Sciences, Open University.
1979 - Appointed lecturer in Dept. of Earth Sciences,University of Cambridge.
1987-1988 - Awarded a One Year Science Research Fellowship by the Nuffield Foundation
1990 - Elected Fellow of the Royal Society
1991 - Appointed Reader in Evolutionary Palaeobiology
1995 - Elected to an ad hominem Chair in Evolutionary Palaeobiology
1997-2002 - NERC Council

Visiting professorships, lectures etc.
1981 - Gallagher Visiting Scientist, University of Calgary, Canada
1988 - Merrill W. Haas Visiting Distinguished Professor in Geology at University of Kansas, Lawrence
1992 - Selby Visiting Fellow, Australian Academy of Sciences
1996 - The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (BBC)
2000 - Tarner Lectures, Trinity College
2000 - Fall 2000 Marker Lecturer, PennState University

Medals, etc.
1987 - Walcott Medal (jointly with Professor A.H. Knoll): National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A
1989 - Charles Schuchert Award: Paleontological Society of the United States
1992 - George Gaylord Simpson Prize, Yale University.
1993 - Honorary Doctor of Philosophy, University of Uppsala.
1997 - Elected Honorary Fellow of European Union of Geosciences (EUG)
1998 - Lyell Medal, Geological Society of London

Publications: The Crucible of Creation first published in 1997 by Kodansha in Japan (eleventh reprinting), and by Oxford University Press in 1998 (three imprints in hardback, two imprints in paperback). Life's Solution: Inevitable humans in a Lonely Universe, 2003; Cambridge University Press. 100 mainstream (including Nature, Science, Cell), and 35 popular/encyclopedia articles. More than 100 book reviews etc. Numerous radio and television interviews.

Other interests: wine, G.K. Chesterton, science and religion.

March 30, 2006 - Intelligent Design Meets the First Amendment: A Report from the Attorney for the Plaintiffs in the Landmark Case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District Eric Rothschild, JD, Pepper Hamilton LLP Attorneys at Law
Duke graduate, Eric Rothschild, is a partner with Pepper Hamilton LLP , resident in the Philadelphia office. He concentrates his practice in insurance and reinsurance, insurance insolvency and complex commercial litigation.

Mr. Rothschild served as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District , the first case in the nation to test whether "intelligent design" -- an argument that the complexity of biological life proves the existence of a supernatural intelligent designer -- can be introduced into the curriculum of public high school science classes. Mr. Rothschild and a team of Pepper lawyers represent 11 parents who challenged the curriculum change in the Dover district as a violation of the First Amendment, on the grounds that the school board acted with a religious purpose and that its action have the effect of promoting or endorsing an inherently religious concept. In a sweeping victory for the plaintiffs, a federal judge ruled on December 20, 2005 that the Dover policy violated the First Amendment, holding that intelligent design is clearly religious in nature, and is not science. Pepper is handling the case as part of its pro bono program.

Mr. Rothschild has litigated many other commercial disputes, including fraud, breach of contract, commercial lending and securities cases. He previously practiced in Pepper's Health Effects Litigation Practice Group, where he participated in trial and appellate proceedings in the Three Mile Island litigation, contributing to the successful challenges to plaintiffs' experts, which led to summary judgment and, ultimately, dismissal.

Mr. Rothschild is a member of the Legal Advisory Board of the National Center for Science Education, an organization advocating the teaching of evolution and resisting the teaching of religious explanations of creation in public schools.

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April 6, 2006 - Darwin, Meaning and Truth Daniel Dennett, Tufts University Director, Center for Cognitive Studies University Professor Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy
Daniel C. Dennett, the author of Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon(2006),Freedom Evolves (VikingPenguin, 2003) and Darwin's Dangerous Idea (Simon & Schuster, 1995), is University Professor and Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He lives with his wife in North Andover, Massachusetts, and has a daughter, a son, and a grandson. He was born in Boston in 1942, the son of a historian by the same name, and received his B.A. in philosophy from Harvard in 1963. He then went to Oxford to work with Gilbert Ryle, under whose supervision he completed the D.Phil. in philosophy in 1965. He taught at U.C. Irvine from 1965 to 1971, when he moved to Tufts, where he has taught ever since, aside from periods visiting at Harvard, Pittsburgh, Oxford, and the Ecole Normal Superieure in Paris.

His first book, Content and Consciousness, appeared in 1969, followed by Brainstorms (1978), Elbow Room (1984), The Intentional Stance (1987), Consciousness Explained (1991), Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995), Kinds of Minds (1996), and Brainchildren: A Collection of Essays 1984-1996 (MIT Press and Penguin, 1998). He co-edited The Mind's I with Douglas Hofstadter in 1981. He is the author of over two hundred scholarly articles on various aspects on the mind, published in journals ranging from Artificial Intelligence and Behavioral and Brain Sciences to Poetics Today and the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.

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