On Thursday, the Pentacrest Museums (Old Capitol Museum and Museum of Natural History) held the inaugural Director's Lecture Series with special guest Dr. Hopi Hoekstra. This was the first in a monthly series presented by the museum this year. These lectures are presented to the public for free. This session was held in the historic Old Capital Museum in the Senate Chamber. The setting was only outshone by the outstandingly presented lecture by Dr. Hoekstra. Dr. Hoekstra is the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the Department of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology as well as the Curator of Mammals at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Don't let that string of complex titles fool you into thinking you couldn't enjoy this lecture. Dr. Hoekstra successfully made her research with beach and mainland mice in Florida seem understandable to everyone. In a nutshell, she discussed her research with color variation and the genetics behind it in these mice. By collecting and tagging mice in both the mainlands and beautiful white sandy beach coasts of Florida, her and her team were able to begin isolating the genes responsible for the color variation and the importance of the variation in their environments. She's also done work with mice in the Nebraska sand dunes and various other beach locations where variations of the mice can be found. She also connected this to the capabilities to discover color variations from fossils and the possibility that Neanderthals had their own color variation genes that humans do not. You can read multiple articles about her research with mice that vary from morphology to behavior at her lab website here: Hoekstra Lab.
There was a nice crowd of University faculty, employees, students and local citizens ranging in all ages who all were hanging on Dr. Hoekstra's every word. I brought along a couple friends from very different backgrounds to see what they would also think: a friend, Miranda Utzinger, a graduate student working on her Ph.D in Biological Anthropology and my fiance, Randy Armstrong, a computer science major. With my primary focus on museum studies and cultural anthropology, I was a little concerned if the genetics would go over my head, but I walked away feeling very intrigued and interested. Although her subject matter is very scientific and complex, she was able to make even someone with very minimal genetic background (like me!) understand her research and the importance within the results. By including small historical anecdotes, we all walked away with some knowledge that may come in handy on a future Trivial Pursuit game! Miranda was extremely intrigued by the mention of Neanderthals in the lecture, as this is her primary study focus and thought the lecture was very well presented. Randy, on the other hand, just thought the research sounded interesting and I think we were both a little jealous of Dr. Hoekstra's gorgeous beach study sites! Everyone seemed to laugh right along with her as she brought humor into her slideshow to break up the science. This seems to be one major reason why Dr.Hoekstra was chosen: not only is she well known in her field, but she is very capable of speaking to a general public audience. Following the lecture, there was a dessert reception including coffee and yummy treats where everyone could mingle and have a meet and greet with Dr. Hoekstra and several museum staff members including the somewhat newly appointed Director of the Pentacrest Museums, Dr. John Logsdon.
Did you attend this lecture? If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Please leave a comment below and let me know what you thought!
Don't miss out on the following Director's Series lectures this fall!
**Dr. Steven Holen of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on October 23rd
** Dr. David Mindell of the California Academy of Sciences on November 10th
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