Bicentennial of British scientist’s birth celebrated by noted Coe College educator
Annual Mel Oliven Lecture to feature Dr. Floyd Sandford in dramatic re-creation of naturalist’s life and work
To mark the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, Kirkwood Community College will invite an audience to imagine the great British scientist as he might have looked, sounded and thought. The college will present its latest Mel Oliven Lecture featuring Dr. Floyd Sandford in Ballantyne Auditorium on Tuesday, April 7 at 11 a.m.
Dr. Sandford is biology professor emeritus at Coe College in Cedar Rapids and has built a notable reputation for his one-person, dramatic presentations on Charles Darwin. The “Darwin Remembers: Recollections of a Life’s Journey” program was written and produced by Sandford, drawing on his many years of research and teaching of Darwin’s writings and discoveries.
Sandford has performed his dramatic presentation on Darwin in educational settings around the U.S. for several years and has earned critical praise for bringing ideas of evolution and biological theories to the general public.
The April 7 presentation is the 37th program in the Mel Oliven Lecture Series, created in memory of the long-time astronomy, environmental science and physics professor in the early years of Kirkwood Community College. Following his untimely death in the early 1970s the Oliven family established an endowment to present free programs to inform students and the public on topics of interest and importance. The continued series is made possible by Kirkwood Student Life, the Math/Science department and the Kirkwood Foundation.
The program is free and open to the public.