Each year, the Department of Biological Sciences celebrates Darwin Day by hosting a speaker in our Ralph W. Axtell Lecture Series. The event takes place around the birthday of Charles Darwin (February 12) and celebrates his enormous contribution to science, particularly the theory of evolution by natural selection (published jointly with Alfred Russel Wallace) that underpins all aspects of modern biology. The lecture series is named in honor of the late Dr. Ralph Axtell in recognition of his many contributions to the University and to science.
For this coming year’s Darwin Day celebrations – on Monday, February 16, 2026 – we are happy to announce that our speaker is Dr. Ashley Morhardt (WashU). She will give a technical talk at 3pm in SE3126 (upper lecture hall) titled “Reconstruction and assessment of brain size, shape, function, and evolution in extinct tetrapods” and a general public talk at 6pm in SE1136 (lower lecture hall) titled “If we only had a brain!: anatomy and evolution in extinct dinosaurs.”