2021 is the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s Descent of Man. The Humanist Association of Ireland’s 2021 Darwin Day lecture will examine how the work holds up in the light of today’s knowledge of genetics and human evolution.
It will take place on Zoom on #darwinday2021
This year, we are delighted that our speaker will be Professor Aoife McLysaght. Aoife is Head of the Genetics Department at Trinity College Dublin, where she has led a research group focusing on Molecular Evolution since 2003.
She was a member of the international consortium that published the first draft of the Human Genome sequence in 2001; was the first to discover novel human-specific genes, in 2000; identified links between gene duplication patterns and human disease; and has made significant contributions to our understanding of the human genome, as well as the genomes of other animals, plants and viruses.
In 2018 Aoife was awarded a European Research Council Consolidator Grant. She is on the editorial board of Molecular Biology and Evolution, Genome Biology and Evolution, and Cell Reports, and is a member of the Genetics Society, and the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, of which she was elected President in 2017.
Aoife takes a keen interest in communicating science to the public in an engaging and accessible manner. She has given many talks at public events, including music festivals, The Royal Institution, and Brian Cox and Robin Ince’s Christmas Science shows. She is a frequent contributor to radio discussions including BBC Radio 4, and has been a regular columnist for the Irish Times science page.