UMD is hosting Dr. Richard Potts on Tuesday, April 6 from 3–4 p.m. for this year’s Ben and Jeanne Overman Distinguished Speakers Series. It’s free and open to the public. Registration is available through this link.
“Environmental Disruption During the Origin of the Homo Sapiens” is the title of Potts’ remote presentation, with a question and answer session to follow.
About the Speaker
Dr. Richard Potts is a paleoanthropologist who researches Earth’s environmental dynamics and the origin of human adaptations. His ideas about how environmental instability has influenced human evolution have stimulated new studies in Earth sciences, paleontology, and computational biology.
He’s founder and director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., and has curated the Smithsonian’s Hall of Human Origins and “Exploring Human Origins,” which has been traveling across the country since 2015.
Potts also conducts field projects in southeastern and northern China, and leads ongoing excavations in southern and western Kenya in partnership with the National Museums of Kenya.
He’s authored more than 200 research publications and the exhibit companion book What Does It Mean To Be Human?
To register
About the Overman Speaker Series
The Overman Speaker Series is designed to create unique opportunities for students to learn and for members of the Duluth and area communities to hear speakers from many walks of life, from the local region and around the world. It’s a biennial event that’s free and open to the public. The fund for the series was established in 2000.
Generous support for this conference provided by the Ben and Jeanne Overman Distinguished Speaker Series Conference fund with coordination from the Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities subcommittee and the Chancellor's office.
UMD Office of the Chancellor, Darland Administration Building 515, 1049 University Drive, Duluth, MN, 55812