EIU Media Relations

EIU Bio Sciences to Celebrate the Father of Evolution, Host Open House in February

Darwin Days February 11-13

Contributing Author: Kaitlyn Ebert

In honor of Charles Darwin’s 209^th birthday, Eastern Illinois University’s Department of Biological Sciences will host a series of events on evolutionary medicine February 11-13 in the Doudna Fine Arts Center, on campus at 600 Lincoln Ave., Charleston.

Students and community members are invited to join in the celebration of the life, work and influence of Charles Darwin in this year’s program, which will focus on the 100^th anniversary of the 1918 flu pandemic and include a film on the influenza outbreak along with two lectures from doctors in the field of disease research.

EIU’s Darwin Day celebration events will span three days. On Sunday, February 11, “Influenza 1918/American Experience/PBS” will be shown as a precursor to the lectures. On Monday, February 12, Dr. Michael Osterholm, a public health scientist, infectious disease expert and science author, will host a presentation and discussion on those topics. On Tuesday, February 13, Dr. Christopher Brooke, assistant professor at the School of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will host a presentation and discussion about his areas of expertise. Each activity will begin at 7 p.m.

EIU’s Darwin Day events are made possible through funding and support from Jane and Herbert Lasky, the EIU Department of Biological Sciences, the EIU College of Sciences, EIU Provost Jay Gatrell, and College of Sciences Dean Doug Klarup. Organizers of the Darwin Day Program include Ann Fritz, Gary Fritz, Zhiwei Liu, Yordan Yordanov and Steve Brantley.

Biology Open House February 16

The Department of Biological Sciences at EIU will host “FebFest”—its inaugural Biology Open House—from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, February 16.

Students from area high schools, Lake Land College, and current EIU students who are undecided majors are invited to attend this day of experiments, displays, tours of the facilities, one-on-one discussions with biology faculty and EIU students, and more. Interested participants should arrive at EIU’s Life Science Building, located on campus at 600 Lincoln Ave., Charleston, by 8 a.m. to register.

All members of the EIU community are welcome to any of these events, which are offered at no cost.