Lynn Margulis, a biologist and professor at the University of Massachusetts (UMASS) Amherst, has been selected to be the seventh speaker in the Richard E. Snyder Presidential Lecture Series.
The topic of her lecture, to be delivered Oct. 4, will be "Evolution: An Unauthorized Biography of Our Symbiotic Planet."
The purpose of the lecture series is to invite expert speakers who have challenged mainstream thought. According to University President Lawrence Bacow, Margulis fits this description well.
"Lynn has done this and more, and actually was quite controversial in her field for many years until scientists developed methodologies to test her theories and [decided she was] correct," he said in an e-mail.
According to Margulis' UMASS faculty biography, she is "best known for her theory of symbiogenesis, which challenges a central tenet of neodarwinism."
Rather than random mutations causing variation among organisms, Margulis argues that "new tissues, organs and even new species evolve primarily through the long-lasting intimacy of strangers."
Tufts Professor of Biology Sara Lewis said she is looking forward to Margulis' lecture and that her speech is a "terrific opportunity for Tufts."
"It's a chance to hear a really great evolutionary biologist speak and [to] interact with her," she said.
Lewis said that one of Margulis' disputed theories was that mitochondria, the "powerhouses of every single cell in higher organisms," were once "free-living creatures ... that were captured and came to live happily in other cells."
According to Lewis, this was controversial and challenged mainstream theories, but now, "many, many independent lines of evidence" corroborate Margulis' assertion.
"Her point of view has been vindicated, because evidence has shown that this reconstruction of events ... is basically true."
While Margulis has indeed challenged conventional wisdom, Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser said she will "probably not" be as controversial as past speakers in the series, who have included Salman Rushdie, Shelby Steele and, most recently, Lawrence Summers.
Still, he said that creating controversy is not the point of the lectures.
"The idea is to bring in all the different kinds of people from all different types of careers. They're all intellectuals. That's the common theme that runs through the lecture series," Glaser said.
As such, controversy is an incidental effect of inviting lecturers who have "taken on sacred cows," he said.
In May 2006, Bacow awarded Margulis an honorary doctor of science degree, saying: "Your scholarship spans tiny bacteria to the whole Earth itself, shedding light on life at both the microbial and global scale. ... Tufts University embraces great teaching and great research. Lynn Margulis, you excel at both," according to Tufts E-News.
The Snyder lecture series was inaugurated in October 2004 with a speech by Dr. Leon Kass, former chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics.
It is endowed by Richard E. Snyder, a 1955 Tufts graduate.
Rob Silverblatt and Giovanni Russonello contributed reporting to this article.
