Davis College
News/Events

The Davis College will sponsor an upcoming lecture in WVU’s DarwinFest series. V. Betty Smocovitis, professor of zoology and history at the University of Florida, will present “Singing His Praises: Darwin and His Theory in Song and Musical Production,” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 26, in 1021 South Agricultural Sciences.

Smocovitis will explore a number of substantive issues in the history of evolution pertaining to controversies over Darwin and his theory in a lighthearted and engaging manner. Music will be played and discussed. A reception will follow the lecture, which is free and open to the public.

Smocovitis studies the history, philosophy, and social study of the 20th-century biological sciences, especially evolutionary biology, systematics, ecology, and genetics. She also explores the history of the botanical sciences in America.

Much of her research concentrates on gaining a better understanding of the evolutionary synthesis, which saw the establishment of the modern theory of evolution. To that end, her first book, Unifying Biology: The Evolutionary Synthesis and Evolutionary Biology, explores that topic. She currently is completing a book-length project that is a biography of the botanical architect of evolutionary synthesis G. Ledyard Stebbins.

West Virginia University is celebrating the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin with DarwinFest, a series of talks and presentations examining the naturalist’s work – from his travels to his influential theory on evolution. For more information on the series, please click here. For more information on the Davis College’s sponsorship of the Smocovitis lecture, please contact Joginder Nath at (304)293-6256.