February 4, 2009

Feb. 12 is Darwin Day worldwide, marking the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the start of a 10-month celebration by California State University, Fresno faculty and students from multiple disciplines.

The campus observance of Darwin’s importance continues through Nov. 22, the 150th anniversary of the publication of his “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.”

“Darwin’s genius in formulating the ‘Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection’ remains one of the greatest contributions to science of the past 200 years,” said Dr. Paul R. Crosbie, an associate professor of biology at Fresno State.

The university’s recognition of Darwin begins at 5 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Downing Planetarium Museum with Fresno State faculty announcing formation of an interdisciplinary campus group, the Consortium for Evolutionary Studies. The consortium is devoted to investigation of evolutionary topics from multiple scholarly perspectives and promotion of evolutionary theory, science and reason.

The free reception at the planetarium following the announcement is open to the public.

At 3 p.m. Feb. 13, a faculty panel will invite questions from the audience regarding Darwin’s ideas and the societal impact of evolutionary biology. Panelists will be Crosbie, Dr. Andrew Fiala (Director of the Ethics Center at Fresno State), Dr. James Mullooly (Anthropology), Dr. Michael Botwin (Psychology) and Dr. Kaberi Kar Gupta, a primate ecologist and anthropologist.

The discussion, which is free and open to the public, will be in Science II, Room 109.

For more information, call Crosbie at 559.278.2074 or e-mail pcrosbie@csufresno.edu.