Renowned Academic Speakers in Darwin’s Living Legacy Conference at the BA
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Alexandria—The BA Center for Special Studies and Programs (CSSP), in partnership with the British Council, is to host 120 renowned academic speakers from over thirty countries worldwide, who will explore the role of the evolutionary science in a range of areas during the “Darwin’s Living Legacy” Conference from 14 to 16 November 2009.
This global Conference, which marks the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary since the publication of his landmark work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, will take place at the BA, and forms the centrepiece of the British Council’s global program Darwin Now.
The Conference gathers speakers from the Middle East Region and around the world to explore the central role of evolutionary science in understanding and advancing research over a range of subject areas including medicine, agriculture, biodiversity and the environment. The wider social, historical and cultural debates around communicating evolutionary science will also be explored.
Academics will discuss issues related to Evolution and Faith on the first day of the conference. Speakers will include Prof. Nidal Guessoum, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Professor John Hedley Brooke, President of the International Society for Science and Religion, UK, will also contribute to the first day sessions. Hedley received a doctorate for his work on the history of chemistry in 1969 and has taught at Lancaster University for thirty years.
Other selected speakers will also address the relation between Science and Education, and will explore the questions raised on the theories of evolution in the 21st century. Presentations regarding this topic will be given by Reverend Michael Reiss, Professor of Science Education and Assistant Director of the Institute of Education, at the University of London, and Professor Richard Wrangham, Harvard University.
The second day of “Darwin’s Living Legacy” will feature speeches from a number of high-profile scientists including; Sir Prof. Patrick Bateson, Professor of Ethology at Cambridge University, and Professor Samy Zalat, Professor of Biodiversity and former Head of the Department of Zoology, Suez Canal University, Egypt.
Professor James Secord, Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project University of Cambridge; will also be giving a presentation entitled “Darwinism and the Global Circulation of News”.
More than sixty scientists and researchers will take part in the sessions of the third and final day of the conference, among them will be Eugenie Carol Scott, American physical anthropologist who has been the Executive Director of the National Centre for Science Education (NCSE) since 1987.
Following the Conference, an exhibition of the life and work of Charles Darwin will be open to public and school children.
To find out more about the conference, please visit the Darwin Now website: www.britishcouncil.org/Darwin
or the CSSP webpage: www.bibalex.org/cssp .