Evolutionary biologist to talk about spiders’ mating habits

By: ISU Communications and Marketing Staff
April 23, 2010

Biologist Maydianne Andrade will be the Diversity in Science speaker for the Darwin Speaker Series on Tuesday April 27.

The Diversity in Science Speaker was founded in order to honor the accomplishments of scientists from all races, religions and gender. The contributions of minority scientists have been typically overlooked when chronicling the history of science.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Andrade, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto at Scarborough, studies cannibalistic spiders and the evolution of their mating behavior. The subject of her talk is "Sexual selection and adaptive plasticity: Extreme mating favours extreme tactics for doomed male black widows."

Popular Science magazine picked Andrade as one of 2005's Brilliant 10. She has also been the recipient of the Outstanding New Investigator Award from the Animal Behavior Society, the Pitelka Award for Excellence in Research from the International Society for Behavioral Ecology and a Premier's Research Excellence Award from the Government of Ontario.

The event will begin at 4 p.m. in the science building room 012. Cookies will be served at 3:30 p.m.

This speaker's series is sponsored by The Lilly Endowment and the Center for Public Service and Community Engagement.

For more information visit http://www.indstate.edu/darwin/diversityscience.htm

Contact: Rusty Gonser, assistant professor of biology, rgonser@isugw.indstate.edu or 812-237-2395

Writer: Kendra Thomas, media relations intern, http://mce_host/news/kthomas19@indstate.edu or 812-237-3773

Story Highlights

Maydianne Andrade is the Diversity in Science speaker.

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