Alan Leshner, CEO of World's Largest Scientific Society, to Speak at Rutgers on Evolution's Impact, Oct. 7

Alan Leshner, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and executive publisher of the journal Science. A Rutgers alumnus, Leshner will be welcomed by Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick and introduced by Robert M. Goodman, executive dean of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

“Evolution’s Impact on Science and Society,” a lecture on the origins and history of science-society tension and how it can be better addressed.  Evolution is a core organizing concept for biology, cosmology, geology, and many other fields. In spite of its broad scientific acceptance, society's reactions to it have been mixed, with some segments seeing it as a threat to their core beliefs and values. This kind of tension is harmful both to science and the broader society.  The program is free and open to the public.

8 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 7

Douglass Campus Center, 100 George St., New Brunswick

Leshner has been chief executive officer of AAAS and executive publisher of Science since December 2001. He received his undergraduate degree in psychology from Franklin and Marshall College and holds master’s and doctoral degrees from Rutgers University in physiological psychology. Leshner is an elected fellow of AAAS, the National Academy of Public Administration and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science and vice chair of its governing council. He also is a member of the advisory committee to the director of the National Institutes of Health. Founded in 1848, AAAS serves 10 million individuals in 262 affiliated societies and academies of science. Its journal has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world.