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

Sean B. Carroll, an award-winning scientist, writer, educator, and executive producer will discuss his recent book at the next MBL Falmouth Forum on Friday, December 4. His talk, titled Brave Genius: Jacques Monod’s Adventure from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize, will be held at 7:30 PM in the MBL’s Lillie Auditorium, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole. Presented by the MBL 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 of Brave 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; and Endless Forms Most Beautiful. His newest book, The Serengeti Rules, will be published in March 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-hour NOVA special based on two of his books that was first broadcast in December 2009 on the occasion of the 150^th anniversary of Darwin’s On 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 MBL’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 MBL Communications Office, 127 Water Street, Woods Hole. Dinner tickets are available until they sell out or until 5:00 pm on Tuesday December 1. For more information, contact the MBL Communications Office at (508) 289-7423 or comm@mbl.edu .

The remaining presentations in the 2015-2016 MBL Falmouth Forum series are below. Visit mbl.edu/falmouth-forum for 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, Philadelphia, 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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The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) 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 MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.

The MBL Associates are a group of individuals and businesses that support the scientific mission of the MBL through their gifts to the Annual Fund. The Associates sponsor educational and research programs for the MBL and raise funds for special projects.