Betty Smocovitis
The University of Wyoming chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, a national scholastic honor society, will bring a visiting professor to UW to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th publication of his "On the Origin of Species."
Betty Smocovitis, recipient of six teaching awards during her 20 years at the University of Florida, will give two public lectures and two class lectures during her visit to the University of Wyoming Feb. 19-20.
Smocovitis will present "Singing his Praises: Darwin and his Theory in Song and Musical Production," co-sponsored by the zoology department, at 4:10 p.m. in Room 129 of the Classroom Building. This general lecture is designed to reflect on Darwin, his theory and its expression in popular culture and American culture.
A reception will follow in the Williams' Conservatory at 5 p.m.
Smocovitis will present another public lecture, "Quinine Fever: American Botanists and the ‘Cinchona Missions' in Latin America, 1942-1945," at 4:10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20, in Room 310 of the Classroom Building. A reception will precede the lecture at 3:30 p.m. in the Williams' Conservatory. This lecture is co-sponsored by the UW botany department.
"Quinine Fever" will add a previously unknown chapter to the long history of quinine, the most potent natural anti-malarial agent in existence.
Smocovitis holds joint appointments as professor in the departments of history and zoology at the University of Florida. She is the author of "Unifying Biology: The Evolutionary Synthesis and Evolutionary Biology" (Choice, Outstanding Academic Title, 1997), and of two works in progress, "One Hundred Years of the Botanical Society of America" and "G. Ledyard Stebbins and the Evolutionary Synthesis."
A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and recent chair of its history and philosophy of science section, she received a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities plus grants from the Botanical Society of America, the National Science Foundation, the American Philosophical Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009
