Paleontologist and Author Neil Shubin to Kick Off MBL Friday Evening Lecture Series, June 27

Contact: Gina Hebert 508-289-7725; ghebert@mbl.edu

MBL, Woods Hole, MA– Our arms, legs, necks, and lungs were bequeathed to us by a fish that lumbered onto land millions of years ago. The genetic legacy of this creature can be seen today in our own DNA, including the genes used to build the quintessentially human feature, our hands.

Dr. Neil Shubin, professor at the University of Chicago and best-selling author will discuss how the discovery of the 375 million-year-old fossil fish, Tiktaalik roseae, has led to a new understanding of the interconnectedness of all life at the MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) Friday Evening Lecture season opener on Friday, June 27. His lecture, “Finding Your Inner Fish” will be held at 8:00 PM in the MBL’s Lillie Auditorium, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole. The event is free and open to the public.

The focus of Dr. Shubin’s research is the evolution of new organs, especially limbs. He's conducted fieldwork in Greenland, China, Canada, and much of North America and Africa and has discovered some of the earliest mammals, crocodiles, dinosaurs, frogs, and salamanders in the fossil record. In 2006 Dr. Shubin co-discovered the Tiktaalik roseae fossil whose flat skull and limbs, and finger, toe, ankle, and wrist bones provided a "missing link" between fish and the earliest land-dwelling creatures. The discovery made headlines around the world and greatly expanded knowledge about the origins of life.

Dr. Shubin is the Robert Bensley Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago and Associate Dean for Academic Strategy in the University's Biological Sciences Division. Trained at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of California at Berkeley, Dr. Shubin is Senior Advisor to the President at the University of Chicago and was appointed Senior Advisor to the President and to the Vice President and Research and for National Laboratories to provide faculty leadership for the recent MBL/UChicago affiliation.

Dr. Shubin is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the author of two popular science books, The Universe Within (2013) and the best-selling Your Inner Fish (2008), which was chosen by the National Academy of Sciences as the best book of the year in 2009. In 2014 he hosted the three-part PBS series, Your Inner Fish, which explores the science of how the human body became the complicated, quirky, amazing machine it is today.

The Friday Evening Lectures are a long-standing tradition at the MBL, dating back to the turn of the last century when they were delivered by such outstanding scientists as Jacques Loeb, Thomas Hunt Morgan, and Charles O. Whitman.  This year's series will continue each week June 27 through August 22. The remaining lectures in the series are below. For more information, visit mbl.edu/FEL

July 3 (Thursday):   
Christopher Neill, Marine Biological Laboratory
“Deforestation, Agriculture and the Future of the Amazon”

 July 11:  
Patricia Hunt, Washington State University
“Declining Human Fertility:  A Conspiracy of Sex, Age, and the Environment?”

July 18:   
Forbes Lecture - Joseph Fetcho, Cornell University
“Transparent Vertebrates Offer a Direct View of the Nervous System in Action”

 July 25:    
Porter Lecture - Richard Hynes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Howard Hughes Medical Institute
“The Intelligent Glue that Holds Us Together”

August 1:   
Daniel Schrag, Harvard University Center for the Environment
“The Timescales of Climate Change”

August 8:   
Mitchell Sogin, Marine Biological Laboratory
"Stepping on the Long Tail of Microbial Populations in Humans and the World’s Oceans"

August 15: 
Carla Shatz, Stanford University
“Surprise at the Synapse: Developmental Critical Periods and Disease - Can Knowledge of One Help Cure the Other?”

August 22:   
Lederberg Lecture – Susan Lindquist, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research; Howard Hughes Medical Institute
“From Yeast Cells to Patient Neurons: A Powerful Discovery Platform for Combating Neurodegenerative Diseases”

—###—

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.