Dr. Richard B. Westbrook, Trustee of the Institute from 1884 until his death in 1899, established the Westbrook Free Lectureship as a means to encourage open discourse on scientific subjects, especially "disputed questions in science and the theories of Evolution." Since 1912 when the series began, Westbrook lecturers have included some of the most distinguished scientists and scholars of the past 100 years, among them John Dewey, George Gaylord Simpson, and Margaret Mead.
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Westbrook Lecture 2008
SATURDAY, MARCH 29
Dr. Nina G. Jablonski
The Evolution of Human Skin Color |
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Human skin serves a range of functions - from protection against the elements to assertion of identity through self-decoration. One of its unique and most significant attributes is that it comes in a range of natural colors.
Dr. Nina Jablonski joins us on March 29th to discuss her groundbreaking research on the evolution of human skin. A biological anthropologist and paleobiologist, her research focuses on environmental adaptations in human and nonhuman primates. In the last 15 years, she has been increasingly absorbed in studies of “unseen” aspects of human evolution, most notably the evolution of human skin and skin color. Her studies have significance for human health, our understanding of human variation, and our use of skin color to define unique human “races”.
Dr. Nina Jablonski is Head and Professor of Anthropology at the Pennsylvania State University. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the California Academy of Sciences. In 2007, she was awarded the W.W. Howells Book Award of the American Anthropological Association for her book Skin: A Natural History. Her research on human skin has been featured in National Geographic, Scientific American, and several PBS documentaries. She has also appeared on The Colbert Report.
The Museum will be open from 12:00 - 4:00 PM
Talk begins at 1:00 PM
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