OHIO UNIVERSITY OCEES

OCEES presents the Darwin Lecture (in February) and the Kitzmiller Lecture (In spring quarter) each year

2009 OCEES KITZMILLER LECTURE honoring the people who established that intelligent design is creationism.

Dr. Kevin Padian presented “Darwin, Dover and intelligent design” featuring his experiences with the Kitzmiller vs. Dover court case.

Dr. Padian, one of the world's leading evolutionary biologists and dinosaur biologists, is Professor of Integrative Biology and Curator in the University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley and the President of the National Center for Science Education.

With his expertise in phylogenetic relationships, homology, and the nature of science he was called to testify in the Dover, Pennsylvania court case that put "intelligent design" on trial in 2005. This US Federal Court case was brought against a public school district requiring that "intelligent design" be provided as an alternative to evolution as to explain the origin of life. The plaintiffs successfully argued that intelligent design is a form of creationism, and thus, the school board policy violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The OCEES KITZMILLER LECTURE is named in honor of the eleven parents from the Dover school district who filed this suit.

Dr. Padian is the author of numerous books and over a hundred scientific articles. He has been active in K-12 science curriculum standards and textbook adoption in California. His numerous awards and honors include the Carl Sagan Award for the Popularization of Science and election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Nina G. Jablonski presented “Darwin's birthday suit: The evolution of human skin and skin color” featuring biological and cultural aspects of human skin - a highly visible and excellent example of evolution by natural selection acting on the human lineage.

Dr. Jablonski is internationally known for her work on primate biology, culture and language and is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the Pennsylvania State University.

For more information please see press release by Ohio University Research Communications

For more information: call 740 593-0424 or contact reilly@ohiou.edu The Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies, Department of Biological Sciences, 107 Irvine Hall, Athens, Ohio 45701.