Local high school and community college science students and teachers are invited to the 2010 Kyoto Laureate Symposium

You are Invited to the 2010 Kyoto Laureate Symposium

3:30 – 5:00 P.M., Wednesday, April 21, 2010

by 2009 Laureates Peter Raymond Grant and

Barbara Rosemary Grant, Evolutionary Biologists

University of California, San Diego, Price Center Ballroom AB

Reception immediately following symposium until 5:30 P.M.

The question of how one species splits into two addresses the foundation of the biodiversity we see around us today.  To investigate the process of speciation, the Grants have spent more than 35 years studying Darwin's finches in the Galápagos Islands.   Their research has demonstrated that morphology and behavior of organisms are altered rapidly by natural selection in response to recurrent environmental changes. The most impressive achievement of the Grants is their detailed study of how, within a dramatically changing natural environment, the beak size and shape of ground finches have changed as well as the mechanisms for the rapid evolution. The Grants were the first to closely trace the evolution taking place in the field, and to study in detail all the aspects related to the evolutionary changes, such as the ecological factors responsible for natural selection, evolutionary responses, the directions in which many traits evolve, and the mechanisms that maintain the genetic variation necessary for evolutionary change. The Grants' empirical research is the most important contribution since Darwin in making evolutionary biology a science in which proof is possible. Their work has not only made enormous contributions to evolutionary biology and ecology, but also has helped to promote an accurate understanding of evolutionary phenomena among the general public.   It also reveals the significance evolutionary biology plays in understanding organisms’ ability to cope with the on-going environmental changes.

The Grant's talk fits well with the high school AP Biology content standards, especially understanding evolution as biological change of organisms that occurs over time and is driven by natural selection, and the California Biology Content Standards, especially evolution is the result of genetic changes that occur in constantly changing environments.

Local high school and community college science students and teachers are invited to attend this important event.  To register, please contact Bruce Arnold soon at barnold@ucsd.edu or 858-534-3298 since only 500 seats have been reserved for students and their teachers.  Schools will be reimbursed for busing students to the symposium.