STANDBY ONLY Dr. Donald Johanson: From Lucy to Language FREE April 26, 2007

Free
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If the RSVP fills up, get there 15 minutes early, because that's when they start releasing no-show tickets to standby.



Dr. Donald Johanson
From Lucy to Language
In conversation with Dr. Luis Chiappe, Chairman, Department of Vertebrate Paleontology and Associate Curator, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
A leading paleontologist and discoverer of the Lucy skeleton, Johanson has explored the Great Rift Valley of East Africa for more than three decades, seeking clues to our ultimate origins. One of the most controversial scientists working today, he is director of the legendary Institute for Human Origins.

Dr. Donald C. Johanson is one of the world's leading and America's best known paleoanthropologists. Working in Africa, he has dedicated the last twenty-five years to exploring, discovering and studying the most significant fossil finds ever made in the search for our origins.

His dramatic discovery, in 1974, of "Lucy" our oldest, most complete human ancestor sparked a controversial change in our view of human origins. The following year, again at the famous site of Hadar, Ethiopia, Johanson's team made the unprecedented discovery of the fossilized remains of some 13 individuals. Believed to be the oldest evidence of human ancestors living in groups, the National Geographic Society dubbed the fossils "The First Family."

Dr. Johanson has spent his entire career looking for clues to questions which have puzzled scientists since Darwin: What made us human? How different are we from the rest of the natural world? By approaching these questions from a variety of new directions, incorporating techniques borrowed from molecular biology, new methodologies in archeological excavation, and sociobiological studies of primates and hunter-gatherer societies, Dr. Johanson provides new insights into the relationship of ancient man to his environment and our own origins.

Dr. Johanson has published nearly 100 scientific papers and several books. His first book, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind, co-authored with Maitland Edey, won the American Book Award in Science (1981). His dedication to the popularizing of science has continued in Blueprints: Solving the Mystery of Evolution (with Edey, 1989) Lucy's Child: The Discovery of a Human Ancestor (with J. Shreeve, 1989), and Journey from the Dawn (with K. O'Farrell, 1990)

Dr. Johanson received his MA and Ph.D. in 1970 and 1974 from the University of Chicago, where he studied human paleontology. In 1981, he founded the internationally acclaimed, multidisciplinary center, Institute of Human Origins.

A native of Argentina, Dr. Luis Chiappe studied biological sciences at the University of Buenos Aires and obtained a Ph.D. in July of 1992. He returned to Argentina in 1996 to work as a visiting professor at the National University of San Luis, where he still periodically teaches college courses. Since 1999, Dr. Chiappe has taught as an adjunct professor for the Department of Earth Sciences at University of Southern California (USC).

In the field, Dr. Chiappe has conducted extensive research on the evolution of dinosaurs. For many years, he has explored the desolate regions of Patagonia and Central Asia, and his research has been featured in several publications, including National Geographic. His recent discovery of thousands of dinosaur eggs is one of the most significant paleontology developments in the last few years.

Dr. Chiappe works as the Chairman of the Department of Vertebrate and an Associate Curator at the esteemed Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Recent exhibits he helped develop include Tiniest Giants (2001), which featured his dinosaur egg discovery, and SuperCroc (2001).

Official Website: http://www.lfla.org/aloud/php/a.calendar.bioText.php?month=04&year=2007&day=26