Lecture centers on the “endless forms” in Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”
New York University will host evolutionary genomics researcher Mark Blaxter for “Sequencing Endless Forms, Most Beautiful and Most Wonderful: The Earth Biogenome Project,” its annual Darwin Lecture, on Mon., Feb. 12, 4 p.m., at NYU’s Center for Genomics and Systems Biology auditorium (12 Waverly Place [at Mercer Street]).
Blaxter leads the Wellcome Sanger Institute’s Tree of Life Program, which aims to sequence all of Earth’s species—linked through the common thread of DNA. His lecture will consider how determining the DNA sequences of all species on Earth will enable us to both understand Darwin’s “endless forms”—as famously conveyed in On the Origin of Species—and promote their conservation.
This event will be both on Zoom and in-person. To receive a webinar link and to RSVP for in-person attendance, please visit the event’s registration page.
Before joining the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Blaxter was a professor of evolutionary genomics at the University of Edinburgh, where his research portfolio focused on the genomics of neglected, non-model organisms and the interpretation of those genomes in ecological and evolutionary contexts. Blaxter, a highly cited author with over 250 refereed papers, is a fellow of the Linnaean Society of London, the Helminthological Society of Washington, the Royal Society for Biology, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
For questions about the lecture, sponsored by NYU’s Dean for Science and Department of Biology, please email biology@nyu.edu.
Subways: 6 (Astor Place); R, W (8th Street)