RELEASED: Feb. 3, 2005

DANVILLE, KY—Dr. Eugenie C. Scott, the nation's leading expert on the creationist/evolution debate, gave a talk at Centre College's Weisiger Theatre at 8 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 7.

With the teaching of evolution in schools being opposed on religious grounds across the country, Dr. Scott is at the center of what has become a major national news story. She is featured prominently in articles in the New York Times and Newsweek this week. A television crew from the PBS series The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer was on hand to tape Dr. Scott's presentation, "Creationism and Evolution: The Controversy Continues."

Dr. Scott, a Humana Visiting Professor at Centre, is executive director of the National Center for Science Education, a not-for-profit organization based in Oakland, Calif. that defends the teaching of evolution in public schools. "Dr. Scott has, for over 20 years, been at the forefront of the creationism/evolution controversy," says Centre biology professor Michael Barton. "Her spirited, but not combative, defense of evolution has gained her a national reputation as the leading advocate for maintaining evolution at the core of the biology curriculum in the classroom."

In keeping with Centre's tradition of community outreach, Dr. Scott's visit to campus was featured a mini-workshop on teaching evolution for high school and middle school teachers on the afternoon of Feb. 7. The following morning, Feb. 8, Dr. Scott visited philosopher Robert Colter's class on the philosophy of science.

It was a homecoming of sorts for Dr. Scott, who had her first major activist experience when she was a physical anthropology professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. In 1980, she worked with a coalition of academics and clergy to keep creationism out of the curriculum of Fayette County schools.

Dr. Scott has served on the Board of Directors of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), and the advisory councils of several church-and-state separation organizations. She has held elective offices in the American Anthropological Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is the current president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, for which she has also been secretary-treasurer. Her honors include the Bruce Alberts Award of the American Society for Cell Biology, the Isaac Asimov Science Award from the American Humanist Association, the James Randi Award from the Skeptic Society, and the Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Missouri College of Arts and Sciences.

The Humana Visiting Professor program, funded by an endowment from the Humana Foundation, enables Centre to invite leading scholars to campus each year to share in the lives of students, faculty and the community.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

For news archives go to http://www.centre.edu/web/news/newsarchive.html.

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