LEWISTON – Science historian Sheila Ann Dean, who has studied the correspondence of Charles Darwin extensively, will present “Charles Darwin: After the Origin and Before the Descent” at Bates College on March 11.

The lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

The year 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of naturalist Charles Darwin and the 150th publication anniversary of “The Origin of Species,” the book in which he set forth the theory of evolution. Dean’s lecture is part of the “Darwin at 200” series of events produced by Bates and the Lewiston Public Library to illustrate the theory’s importance to understanding life on Earth and human culture.

The talk is open to the public at no cost. For more information, phone 207-786-6490 or visit the Darwin series Web site: ats.bates.edu/darwinat200/.

A visiting curator and scholar at Cornell University, Dean is the author of “Charles Darwin: After the Origin,” examining the 22 years that followed publication of “The Origin of Species.”

As an editor of the “Correspondence of Charles Darwin” project at the University of Cambridge, Dean spent almost 14 years reading piles of letters to and from Darwin.

She has contributed to more than six volumes of the work.

Before earning her doctorate in history of science from The Johns Hopkins University, Dean worked as a forest hydrologist in the Rocky Mountains, later also studying acid mine drainage in Arizona.

Her foray into the biological sciences included research of native and exotic desert fish.

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