Americans United for Separation of Church &StateOrange County Chapter Presents Dr. Francisco AyalaDarwin’s Greatest Discovery: Design without Designer Saturday, March 21 at 1:30 pmCommunity
Room - Irvine Ranch Water District1
D Dr. Ayala is an evolutionary biologist and geneticist and he speaks often at universities, in churches, for social groups and elsewhere, usually in defense of the theory of evolution and against the arguments of creationism and its ideological cousin, intelligent design. He is the author of “Darwin’s Gift To Science and Religion” as well as 50 other books and numerous scientific articles. Dr. Ayala “has a bully pulpit,” said Eugenie Scott, former head of the National Center for Science Education, a group that advocates for the teaching of evolution and against creationism in public schools. “When Francisco speaks, people listen.” In
2001 he was awarded the National Medal of Science and in 2010 the
Templeton Prize. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences,
the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American
Philosophical Society. He is the recipient of the UCI Medal,
University of California 1998 Distinguished Scientist Award, the
Sigma Xi's William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement, 2000;
and numerous other prizes and awards. He has honorary Degrees from
Argentina, Chile, China, Greece, Italy, Poland, Russia and Spain,
among others. For more information: Visit: www.au-oc.org or email: OrangeCountyAU@yahoo.com Call: 949-233-2910 1 Irvine Ranch Water District neither supports nor endorses the cause nor activities of organizations which use the District’s meeting rooms that are made available as a public service. |
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Ayala currently teaches at the University of California, Irvine and
is University Professor and Donald Bren Professor of Biological
Sciences. He has been a member of advisory committees for the
Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation and
the National Institutes of Health as well as being on President
Clinton’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. His
research interests are in evolutionary biology and he is also
interested in the philosophy of biology and bioethics and the
relationship between science and religion, including the teaching of
evolution in the schools. Dr. Ayala served as an expert witness in
the Arkansas trial on the teaching of evolution in 1981.