Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Alfred Russel Wallace Turns 200!
$15 members and Harvard ID holders / $20 nonmembers
Ticket includes full access to museum galleries and a special Wallace-themed mocktail or cocktail.
Guests must be 21+ to consume alcoholic beverages. Valid government ID is required.
Dive into the world of Alfred Russel Wallace at this science-packed birthday party. In celebration of the bicentenary of Wallace’s birth, Harvard scholars and guest speakers will introduce his key contributions to our understanding of evolution, biodiversity, and biogeography. While unjustly relegated to a footnote in the Charles Darwin story, Wallace was, in fact, a pioneering biologist in his own right.
Lacking Darwin’s privilege and wealth, he refused to let these obstacles prevent him from pursuing his scientific dreams. We’ll also be celebrating Wallace’s personal connection to the museum: he visited in 1886 and wrote excitedly about how its displays provided the best possible introduction to evolution. Ticket includes full access to museum galleries and a special Wallace-themed cocktail. Additional beverages will be on sale.
Lightning Talks
Each presentation is 12–15 minutes long.
Getting There: What Wallace’s Field Notebooks Reveal About His Evolutionary Thinking
Jim Costa | Evolutionary biologist, entomologist, and Darwin and Wallace scholar; Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Western Carolina University
With Wallace: In the Amazon
Wendy Valencia-Montoya | PhD student, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Then & Now: Wallace’s Biogeography and Continental Drift
Gonzalo Giribet | Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
Respect! Darwin & Wallace
Janet Browne | Aramont Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University
Famous for Not Being Famous: Wallace & Posterity
Andrew Berry | Assistant Head Tutor of Integrative Biology and Lecturer on Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Talks will be followed by reception in the galleries of the Harvard Museum of Natural History
Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.
