University of California's Kevin Padian to Deliver Annual Potter Lecture

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Lecture will focus on Padian's work as an expert witness in the landmark Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial

In 2004, the annual Potter Lecture was established by alumni, colleagues and friends of the Department of Earth Sciences to honor Emeritus Professor Noel Potter, who retired from Dickinson a year later.

The event allows a yearly opportunity for students to engage with scientists from universities and organizations from across the country to discuss their research, career paths and professional opportunities.

This year, Kevin Padian, emeritus professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and curator of paleontology at the University of California Museum of Paleontology, will deliver the 18th-annual Potter Lecture. 

Padian’s area of interest is vertebrate evolution, especially the origins of flight and the evolution of birds from theropod dinosaurs. He served as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the landmark Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial (2005), presided over by Dickinson President John E. Jones III ’77, P’11, a U.S. district court judge at the time. Padian’s testimony was repeatedly cited in the court’s decision, and the theme of Padian’s Potter Lecture will be a retrospective on Kitzmiller.

The lecture will be held in person on Thursday, March 24, at 7 p.m. in the Stern Great Room and will be available via livestream

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Published March 22, 2022