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Darwin-China 200 Conference at PKU -
Celebrating 150th Anniversary of On
the Origin of Species
PKU NEWS 2009--10--25
http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=256667822
Peking University, Oct. 25, 2009: On Oct. 24, the Darwin-China 200 Conference
opened at Peking University's Yingjie Overseas Exchange Center. During the 3-day
event, 400 attendants are to exchange ideas on various issues concerning the
Darwinian mechanisms, the comparison and dynamics of genomics, molecular
evolution and speciation, reconstruction of phylogeny, biogeography, the origin of
major groups and its paleontological evidences.
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th
anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. Darwin's discoveries of
evolutionary mechanisms and facts have made immeasurable contributions to the
development of life sciences.
"He cannot change the nature, but he has changed the whole world." said Zhang
Xian'en, director-general of the Department of Basic Research, Ministry of Science
and Technology of China.
44 scholars of international reputation will speak at the conference. They come from
32 academic institutions across eight countries, Canada, China, Denmark, Ireland,
Sweden, UK, US and Japan, including 10 academicians or members of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Royal Society in the UK, the United States National
Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences. "We all, in some senses, share the identity as followers of
Darwin," commented Professor Hong Deyuan, academician of CAS, "beyond the
difference in what we look like, where we come from or which language we speak".
Yan Fu (1854-1921), the first president of the National Peking University (renamed
since the founding of the Republic of China in 1912), is also the first one to introduce
Darwinian theories to China. He is well-known for his translation (first published in
1898) of Thomas Huxley's Evolution and Ethics, which not only initiated
dissemination of the idea of biological evolution in China, but also had far-reaching
social impacts in dissemination of science, intellectual enlightenment, reform
movements and social revolutions.
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