The year 2009 is the 150
th anniversary of the publication of
On the Origin of Species and the 200
th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin.
Charles Darwin had planned to enter the ministry, but his discoveries on a fateful voyage 178 years ago shook his faith and changed our conception of the origins of life. The theory of evolution by natural selection as elaborated in his book On the Origin of Species is considered by historians and philosophers of science to be one of the most important ideas ever had by the human mind.
In partnership with The Ohio State University, Darwin: The Growth of an Idea celebration, the Zoo will host Darwin scholar Dr. Tim Berra for a special presentation at the Fawcett Center at the Ohio State University. Following the lecture, Dr. Berra will sign copies of his new book – “Charles Darwin: The Concise Story of an Extraordinary Man.”
Dr. Tim M. Berra is Professor Emeritus of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology at the Ohio State University. He received the Ph.D. in Biology from Tulane University in 1969. He is a two-time recipient of Fulbright Fellowships to Australia in 1969 and 1979. He taught at the University of Papua New Guinea before joining the faculty of OSU in 1972. Over the last 40 years he has spent over 8 years doing fieldwork in Australia.
Dr. Berra is the author of over 75 scientific papers and 6 books including
Evolution and the Myth of Creationism published by Stanford University Press in 1990. His book
A Natural History of Australia (Univ. of NSW Press/Academic Press, 1998)features 200 of his color photographs, 220 line drawings and maps, and over 500 references.
Freshwater Fish Distribution featuring 169 maps, 324 fish drawings and 1,700 references was published by University of Chicago Press in 2007. His latest book,
Charles Darwin: The Concise Story of an Extraordinary Man, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in November 2008 and features 60 b/w illustrations and 16 color plates.
Dr. Berra is the former editor of
The Ohio Journal of Science and was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium where he also served on the Conservation and Collection Management Committee. He was also the ichthyological book review editor of
Copeia, the journal of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists and a member of the Board of Governors of the Society. Dr. Berra resigned these positions at the end of 2000 to pursue fieldwork supported by the National Geographic Society and the Columbus Zoo in Australia in 2001. He is Research Associate at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin, Australia where he spent most of 2001 working on the life history of the nurseryfish. He returned to Darwin in 2003, 2004, and 2005 to continue his nurseryfish research, and he will be keynoting Charles Darwin University’s celebrations of the Darwin bicentennial in 2009.
In 1992 he was visiting professor at the University of Concepcion in Chile, and in 1996 he was visiting professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand. He took early retirement from Ohio State University in July 1995 to devote full time to research, writing, and photography.