Join us to celebrate the 215th birthday of Charles Darwin, and the science and wonder of common ancestry through evolution by natural selection. This year, evolutionary biologist and zoologist Prof. Gonzalo Giribet will talk about how understanding the distribution of animals through space and time contributes to a better understanding of evolution and its consequences, and why the co-discovery of evolution by natural selection was only possible by exploring the world. An audience Q&A follows the talk.

WHEN: Thursday, 2024/FEB/22, 6pm ET
WHERE: 35-325 (3rd Floor, 127 Massachusetts Ave, https://whereis.mit.edu/?go=35 )

Darwin's birthday party with cake, snacks, and beverages follows the talk.
Sponsored by the Greater Boston Humanists
The event will be photographed, recorded, and streamed.

Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxQa-n02P4I

More about Darwin Day: http://darwinday.org

About our speaker:
Dr Gonzalo Giribet is the Director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Curator of Invertebrates and Molluscs, and Professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, at Harvard University. He graduated from the Universitat de Barcelona (concentrating in Zoology and Genetics) in 1993, where he also obtained his PhD in 1997, with one of the first PhD theses to use molecular phylogenetics in a zoology department. In 2000, he moved to Harvard as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Curator in Invertebrate Zoology, receiving tenure and becoming Full Professor in 2007. Dr Giribet has received multiple internal recognitions from Harvard, including his naming as Harvard College Professor from 2017–2022 (awarded every year to five professors across the university for their dedication to undergraduate education)
Dr Giribet’s research focuses on the evolution and biogeography of invertebrate animals, focusing on arthropods and crustaceans, but spanning the entire animal tree of life, including empirical and theoretical work. His main goal is to understand how animal diversity originates and is maintained, using whatever technique is needed. His work is deeply grounded in organismal biology, having conducted field work in 40 countries, including all continents, including Antarctica, and has dived in all oceans, including the Arctic and Antarctic oceans. He has graduated 13 PhD students, many of whom now have their own research groups, and several MSc students.
Dr Giribet has authored/co-authored more than 400 scientific articles, and two major invertebrate zoology textbooks. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Invertebrate Systematics and in the Editorial board of about ten journals. He has named 150 new taxa, including new species, genera and families of multiple invertebrate phyla. In recognition of his work, 11 new species and one genus, Giribetia, have been named after him.
Dr Giribet’s passions are windsurfing and wildlife photography.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5467-8429
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0OdjAAkAAAAJ&hl=en
Lab website: https://giribetgroup.oeb.harvard.edu

------------------
Sign up for email event alerts at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ssomit-announce
Website: ssomit.mit.edu
Email: ssomit@mit.edu