Yale University biologist to present annual Jack and Pat Bryan Life Sciences Lecture

Günter Wagner, the Alison Richard Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, will present the 2011 Jack and Pat Bryan Life Sciences Lecture at Syracuse University. The lecture, “How Evolution is Cheating Probability,” will be from noon-1 p.m., Monday, April 11. Wagner will also present “Evolution of transcription factor function and the origin of evolutionary novelties” at 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 12. Both lectures will take place in the Life Sciences Complex Lundgren Room, Room 106 and are free and open to the public.

The lectures are co-presented by the Biology Graduate Student Organization (BGSO) and the Department of Biology in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences.

The April 11 lecture will be followed by a poster session featuring the work of life sciences graduate students across the University. Students in biology, environmental sciences, biomaterials, exercise sciences, chemistry, physics and forensic science are invited to submit posters. Presenters must e-mail a 300-word abstract for their posters by 5 p.m., April 7 to Nikhilesh Dhar, BGSO president, at ndhar@syr.edu.

Wagner’s research is focused on understanding the evolution of complex characters, including questions of how they can evolve by random mutation and selection, the biological nature of character identity and the genetic mechanisms for the origin of novel characters.

The lecture is made possible by a generous gift from Pat Bryan in memory of her husband, Jack, a longtime member of the department’s faculty who was deeply committed to graduate education and research.