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The 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's extraordinary book On the Origin of Species is fall 2009. Concurrent with that anniversary and a wider celebration of Darwin, Virginia Tech is hosting an academic conference on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009, focused on this remarkable person and book. The conference will be held at the Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center in Blacksburg.
The morning session will feature three keynote speakers, each internationally renowned as Darwin scholars: Philip Kitcher of Columbia University, Bob Richards from the University of Chicago, and Frank Sulloway with the University of California, Berkeley. They will respectively consider social and contemporary issues, interpretative and historical aspects, and scientific topics that arise from On the Origin of Species and modern Darwinism. The afternoon will consist of three concurrent sessions of submitted presentations, each aligned with a theme of the keynote speakers. Details regarding the submission of abstracts, and their scholarly review, are forthcoming. The program will conclude with an evening reception.
The essence of this conference, indeed a celebration of Darwin, is best captured in his own words:
whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
On the Origin of Species
(First edition, 1859)
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