Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State’s fourth annual Darwin Week celebration begins at noon Saturday [Feb. 6] with the ever-popular “Survival of the Fittest” Dodgeball Tournament at the university’s Joe Frank Sanderson Center.

Free to all, this and other daily events taking place through Friday [the 12th] recognize the life and work of English naturalist and geologist Charles Darwin (1809-82).

While all are welcome to attend, MSU students and faculty interested in participating in Saturday’s dodgeball tournament are encouraged to contact Giuliano Colosimo at gc460@msstate.edu.

“Darwin Week is intended to be a time when we can open a dialogue about current research in the biological sciences,” said geology instructor Amy P. Moe-Hoffman.

She said the scheduled events offer programming relevant to diverse audiences, highlighting some exciting new advances in science that have built upon Darwin’s ideas and addressing such topics as the evolution of diseases and the importance of preserving biodiversity.

Activities include:

—Sunday [the 7th], a 2 p.m. presentation by Matt Brown titled “Tracking Convergent Evolution Across Eukaryotes” at Mississippi University for Women’s Plymouth Bluff Environmental Center on Old West Point Road west of Columbus. Brown is an MSU assistant professor of biological sciences.

—Tuesday [the 9th], a 4-5 p.m. opening reception in the McComas Hall Art Gallery for the exhibit “Cargo for Conversation: Impacts of the Illegal Wildlife Trade,” in which art students used items confiscated in the illegal wildlife trade as inspiration for posters and photographic creations. The exhibit is on display Tuesday-Friday [9-12th] from 8-11 a.m.

—Tuesday [the 9th], Café Scientifique, to begin at 6:30 p.m. at Starkville’s Veranda restaurant on Loxley Way. “Ecological Metronomes: Animal and Ecosystem Responses to Hurricanes in the Caribbean Islands” will be the topic of conservation biology professor Francisco Vilella.

—Friday [the 12th], beginning at 9 a.m., local eighth-grade science students will make a three-hour “Career in Biological Sciences” tour of the university’s Dunn-Seiler geology and Cobb archaeology museums, among other facilities. They will learn about wildlife conservation, scientific illustration, entomology, paleontology, archaeology, microbiology and forensic anthropology.

—Also Friday, a 5 p.m. Darwin birthday reception in the Cobb Institute of Archaeology foyer. At 5:30 p.m. in Room 100, Evan Peacock, a professor in the anthropology and Middle Eastern cultures department, will present “Humankind’s Place in Nature: Barriers to the Incorporation of a Long-Term Perspective.” Refreshments will be served.

For additional Darwin Week information, contact Moe-Hoffman at 662-325-3915 or apm105@msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.