Award-winning Evolutionary Biologist Describes Life of A Brave Genius At Falmouth Forum

Sean Carroll

Sean B. Carroll, an award-winning scientist, writer, educator, and executive producer will discuss his recent book at the nextonFriday, December 4. His talk, titledBrave Genius: Jacques Monod’s Adventure from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize,will be held at 7:30 PM in the ’s Lillie Auditorium, 7 Street, Woods Hole. Presented by the Associates, and sponsored in part by the Falmouth Forum Endowment, the event is free and open to the public.

Carroll will describe Monod’s journey from the dark years of the German occupation of Paris to the heights of his career as a co-founder of molecular biology, an accomplishment for which he was awarded the 1965 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, and his emergence as a public figure and leading voice of science. Carroll will also discuss his friendship with the great writer and “national conscience of France” Albert Camus (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1957).

Carroll is the author ofBrave Genius: A Scientist, A Philosopher and their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize; Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for non-fiction;The Making of the Fittest;ԻEndless Forms Most Beautiful.His newest book,The Serengeti Rules, will be published inMarch 2016.

A popular public speaker as well as a prominent science communicator on radio and television, Carroll is the architect of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s $60 million science film-making initiative, and has served as executive producer and/or on-screen presenter of more than a dozen films. Carroll was also the scientific consulting producer of a two-hourմspecial based on two of his books that was first broadcast inDecember 2009on the occasion of the 150thanniversary of Darwin’sOn the Origin of Species.

Carroll’s laboratory research has centered on the genes that control animal body patterns and play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity. In recognition of his scientific contributions, he has received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Sciences, been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, as well as named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For his educational efforts, Carroll has received the Stephen Jay Gould Prize for the advancement of the public understanding of evolution, the Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Award from the Society for Developmental Biology, and the Distinguished Service Award of the National Association of Biology Teachers.

Carroll is currently Vice President for Science Education of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the largest private supporter of science education activities in the US, and Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin.

An optional buffet dinner will precede the lecture at 6:00 PM at the ’s Swope Center, 5 North Street, Woods Hole. Tickets are $30 (meal includes salad, pasta or potatoes, two entrees, wine, dessert, tax and gratuity) and must be purchased in advance at Eight Cousins Bookstore, Main Street, Falmouth or at the Communications Office, 127 Water Street, Woods Hole. Dinner tickets are available until they sell out or until 5:00 pm onTuesday December 1. For more information, contact the Communications Office at(508) 289-7423orcomm@mbl.edu.

The remaining presentations in the 2015-2016 Falmouth Forum series are below. Visitfor details and updated information.

March 4, 2016
How to Build a Heart: Lessons from Man and Nature
Duke Cameron, professor and chief of cardiac surgery, The Johns Hopkins Hospital

NEW!
March 18, 2016
Curtis on Tour, ensemble of harp, flute, violin/viola, cello and soprano
Curtis Institute of Music,ʳ󾱱󾱲,Program TBA

April 1, 2016
This Verse Business: One-man Show about Poet Robert Frost (written by Andy Dolan)
Gordon Clapp, Emmy-winning actor

Date TBD
Life Lessons from Living in Space
Sunita Williams, Captain, US Navy

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() is dedicated to scientific discovery and improving the human condition through research and education in biology, biomedicine, and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.

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