Westbrook Free Lectureship

Dr. Richard B. Westbrook, Trustee of the Wagner Free Institute of Science 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 theories of Evolution.”

Now, each year, we invite a scientist or scholar doing boundary-pushing work in the fields of science or history of science to deliver a free lecture on the area of their specialty. Since 1912 when the series began, our speakers have included some of the most distinguished scientists and scholars of the past 100 years, among them paleontologist William Berryman Scott, anthropologist Nina Jablonski, and oceanographer Sylvia Earle. View a complete list of lectures held under the Richard B. Westbrook lectureship here.

PREVIOUS PROGRAMS

  • Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change with Dr. Michael E. Mann

    Saturday, November 11, 2017
    3 - 4:30pm

    For our 2017 Westbrook Lecture, renowned Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Dr. Michael E. Mann will explain the solid evidence confirming climate change and its human influences—from instrumental measurements to computer-modeled predictions. He will also describe the frightening impacts of climate change, some of which we are already experiencing, and possible solutions to the problem.

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  • Tracing Neutrinos Through the Cosmos with Dr. Naoko Kurahashi Neilson

    Saturday, November 10, 2018
    3 - 4:30pm

    The Universe has been studied using light since the dawn of astronomy, but now a different kind of telescope located at the geographic South Pole is observing the Universe in a unique way: in high-energy neutrinos. This talk will explain what these extreme neutrinos are, the extreme astrophysics we study using them, at extreme energies, and why the IceCube lab is in such an extreme location.

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  • Written in the Scars: What Our Flaws Teach Us about Our Past With Dr. Nathan H. Lents

    Saturday, March 4, 2023
    3 - 4:30pm

    We like to think of human beings as the pinnacle of creation, or the most evolved animals on earth, but we may actually be one of the most flawed species of all. In this presentation, Dr. Nathan Lents will explain how the many quirks and glitches in human anatomy tell us interesting things about our past and help us live in better harmony with our bodies.

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  • Beyond the Binaries: The New Science of Sex and Gender with Mallika S. Sarma, Agustín Fuentes, and Nathan H. Lents

    Thursday, May 29 2025
    6 - 7:30pm

    The Wagner will host a panel discussion led by anthropologist Mallika Sarma (University of Pennsylvania) with evolutionary anthropologist Agustín Fuentes (Princeton University) and biologist Nathan H. Lents (CUNY) about the nature, origin, and purpose of sex and gender diversity in humans and other animals.

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