Dr. Aaron Haselton of SUNY New Paltz biology department will lecture on some of his recent research surrounding diet and mating in everyone's favorite invertebrate: Drosophila!

Ben Normark is an insect molecular systematist who is currently focused on the evolution of unique mechanisms of genetic inheritance. Ben’s recent research efforts include reconstructing the evolutionary histories (phylogenies) of groups of insects that can best be described as “legless, eyeless, parasitic blobs”, a.k.a. the armored scale insects. Molecular phylogenies are then used to investigate the evolution of sex, genetic conflict, and other bizarre phenomena (e.g. fatherless males, gender-bender cells, immortal heirloom organs, meddlesome symbionts, etc.) in these animals. Please join us and find out what this assemblage of minute creatures has revealed regarding animal sex and genetics.

Dr. Maryanne Fisher, an evolutionary psychologist at St. Mary's University in Nova Scotia, will give a talk titled, "How Women Compete for Mates." A dynamic speaker and prolific researcher, with more than 50 publications to date, Dr. Fisher's work represents some of the most intriguing scholarship in modern evolutionary psychology.

Justin Garcia of Binghamton will be speaking on his research in a talk titled "Intimacy, Infidelity, and the Individual." Justin's work, which largely addresses "hook-up" behavior in young adults from an evolutionary perspective, has been well received in both scholarly and public circles, leading to a publication in the Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology as well as media attention in Psychology Today (as well as other media outlets).

David Livingstone Smith is a philosopher at the University of New England and is the director of the New England Institute. His work addresses how fundamental aspects of human nature shape the face of warfare.

Public lecture by internationally renowned evolutionary psychologist, David Schmitt, titled "Darwin's Legacy in the Behavioral Sciences: Human Mating Research in the 21st Century." Director of the International Sexuality Description Project, Dr. Schmitt's work on mating from an evolutionary perspective has been published in the most elite scholarly journals in the behavioral sciences (e.g., Brain and Behavioral Sciences) and in many major media outlets (e.g., The New York Times).

Dr. Allmon is the Director of the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) in Ithaca, NY and Adjunct Associate Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University. PRI is an internationally renowned research institute and runs the Museum of the Earth located in Ithaca, New York, with a recently expanded $11 million education and exhibit facility which opened in September 2003. Dr. Allmon’s major research interest is macroevolution and paleoecology, especially the ecology of the origin and maintenance of biological diversity and the application of the geological record to the study of these problems, particularly using Cenozoic marine gastropods (snails of the last 65 million years). He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and the recipient of the 2004 Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Understanding of Geoscience from the American Geological Institute.

Dr. Gallup, who has more than 300 publications - mostly related to evolution and human behavior, simply has a reputation that precedes himself - and pretty much anyone else. Perhaps best-known as the scholar who demonstrated that self-awareness exists in some species outside our own (such as chimpanzees), Dr. Gallup is a luminary in the field. His work on the evolution of human sexual attraction - addressing such facets of humans as voice, facial features, and bodily symmetry - has gotten a great deal of attention within both scholarly and media circles. This work will be the focus of his talk on campus.