Admissions

Lake Forest, Ill. - Dr. John Bates, a world authority on tropical bird molecular evolution, will deliver a public lecture at Lake Forest College on Monday, November 5, at 4:15 pm.

Aimed at a general audience, Dr. Bates’ presentation titled “Natural History Museums: Their role in understanding evolution in the tropics and how to conserve biodiversity” will be held in Meyer Auditorium, Hotchkiss Hall. The public is welcome to attend free of charge. A pre-seminar reception will be held at 4:00 pm. Please call 847-735-5090 for more information.

Dr. Bates is the Chairman of the Department of Zoology of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. He received his undergraduate degree in biology at the University of Arizona and then conducted graduate research at the University of Arizona and Louisiana State University, where he received his Ph.D. in Zoology. He conducted postdoctoral work at the American Museum of Natural History in New York before joining the Field Museum in 1995, where he chairs the largest academic department, and serves as a member of the management committee of the Pritzker Laboratory of Molecular Systematics and Evolution.

Dr. Bates’ laboratory studies the evolutionary genetics of tropical birds. In particular, he is interested in processes that can generate geographic patterns of genetic differences across populations, potentially leading to speciation. He is also interested in using DNA to reconstruct phylogenies that trace the patterns of divergence in the evolution of tropical bird groups, particularly suboscine passerines such as New World Flycatchers and Antbirds.

While at the Field Museum, Dr. Bates has supervised graduate students and taught classes at Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is also active in Africa, where he has advised students at Makerere University in Uganda, and leads a biodiversity research program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The event is sponsored by the Lake Forest College Biology Department, and by Beta Beta Beta, the national undergraduate biology honorary society.

Lake Forest College is a national liberal arts institution located 30 miles north of downtown Chicago. The College has 1,400 students representing 47 states and 65 countries.


# # #