College of Sciences Lecture Series

Professor Daniel J. Kevles of Caltech, a widely published author and twice winner of the International Platform Association "Best College or University Campus Lecture Series Award,"  kicked off the College of Sciences visiting Distinguished Professor Lecture Series in Bioinformatics on February 1, 2001.  Kevles spoke on "Beyond Eugenics: Justice, property, and the human genome."  According to Kevles, eugenics is defined as "the scientific application of the findings of the study of heredity to human beings with the object of perpetuating those inherent and hereditary qualities which aid in the development of the human race."   In other words, someone (the government,) deciding who should (or should not ) procreate so that their idea of a more "desirable" pool of humans are produced in the process.  In his lecture,  Kevles talked about the issue of eugenics vs. justice and human rights, and gave an informative and amusing account of the history of eugenics. He spoke about the incredible scientific and medical advancements that have been made in eugenics since the 1930s, along with possible benefits and consequences of those advancements.  The lecture was well attended and ended with a question and answer session.