Iowa City Darwin Day Events

Sharon DeWitte is a biological anthropologist and Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Carolina. Dr. DeWitte studies infectious disease through the lenses of bioanthropology, paleodemography and paleoepidemiology. An expert on historical disease outbreaks, Dr. DeWitte’s research on the Black Death (the bubonic plague in medieval Europe) has been highlighted in the New York Times, American Scientist, and Time Magazine, and in a TED educational video.

Ana Duggan’s Interests are broadly encompassed by molecular anthropology, evolution and population genetics, by the historical inferences we can make from genetic analyses. Her current research interests involve using ancient DNA studies to reconstruct the genome of historical pathogens to examine the evolution and epidemiology of disease in ancient human populations as well as the population history of Native American groups from Canada’s East Coast.

Jeanne Serb is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology and Director of the Office of Biotechnology at Iowa State University. Dr. Serb is broadly interested in the origins of biological diversity, with a particular interest in the evolution of eyes. Her lab takes a multidisciplinary approach to research, using data that includes behavioral assays, morphological measurements, genome analysis, and phylogenetic inference.