PRESS RELEASE
Contact Information: Sheryl Weinstein Public Relations
973-596-3436
Expert on Biological Evolution Headlines Upcoming NJIT Lecture
NEWARK, Mar 5 2008
The “Evolution of Life: Sex and Other Mergers” will be the subject of an upcoming talk at NJIT by noted University of Massachusetts (UM) scientist and author Lynn Margulis, an expert on the “Gaia” hypothesis. Margulis, who will focus on humankind’s biological evolution, will be the second guest speaker for 2008 at NJIT’s Technology and Society Forum http://tsf.njit.edu. She is a distinguished university professor in the department of geosciences at UM, Amherst. The “dispensable” nature of our presence on the planet is related to the Gaia hypothesis, according to Margulis. Named after the Greek goddess of the Earth, the concept holds that all the planet’s living and nonliving components constitute a complex interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism. The Gaia hypothesis was initially proposed by the British atmospheric chemist James E. Lovelock.
“It is our reproductive peculiarities within this system that could make the prospect of long-term survival for Homo sapiens so tenuous,” noted Margulis.
The public is invited to the free talk set for March 31, 2008, from 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. in the NJIT Campus Center ballroom. Parking should be available on the street or in the NJIT parking garage, located at Summit and Warren streets.
Margulis, who holds a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1983 and received the Presidential Medal of Science in 1999. In 1998, the Library of Congress announced that it would permanently archive her papers.
Spanning a range of scientific topics, Margulis’ publications include original contributions to cell biology and microbial evolution. She is also acknowledged for her contributions to the Gaia hypothesis. Among her recent books are Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution and Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of Species.
NJIT Technology and Society Forum Committee, Albert Dorman Honors College and Sigma Xi are co-sponsors of the event. Upcoming talks include a performance April 2, 2008 by members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra; a performance April 7, 2008 by violinist Rieko Kawabata and a lecture April 30, 2008 by Charles Vest, president, American Academy of Engineering and President Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, about 21st century engineering education.
New Jersey Institute of Technology, New Jersey's science and technology university, enrolls more than 8,000 students in bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in nearly 100 degree programs offered by six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College, and College of Computing Sciences. NJIT is renowned for expertise in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering, and eLearning. NJIT: The Edge in Knowledge.
