University of Hawai'i University Relations Media & Publications Honolulu, HI 96822	(808) 956-8856 Telephone (808) 956-3441 Facsimile ur@hawaii.edu E-Mail
For Immediate Release:	September 15, 1999
Contact: Donnë Florence, PIO, 808-956-7522, donne@hawaii.edu Rebecca Cann, Genetics, 808-956-5521 or 808-956-8552, rcann@hawaii.edu

Rutgers biologist Robert Trivers leads off UHDistinguished Lecture Series for 1999-2000

Celebrated biologist Robert Trivers of the Rutgers (New Jersey) University Department of Anthropology, will be the first featured speaker in this year's University of Hawai'i Distinguished Lecture Series. As in years past, each series speaker will offer two presentations--one a large-auditorium lecture for a general audience, and the other a specialized seminar for UH faculty, students and other experts. Trivers's public lecture takes place Tuesday, Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the Architecture Auditorium at UH Manoa. Its title is "Symmetry, Sex, and Important Variables in Human Life."

Robert Trivers is best known for his theories on the evolution of social behavior--specifically, how genes influence the behavior of parents and offspring, how people choose mates and how they interact to get what they want from others in their social groups. He has written many papers on the evolution of altruism, spite and deceit. Right now, he is also pursuing studies of self-deception, the active misrepresentation of reality to one's own conscious mind. He analyzes voice recorder data from plane crashes, people's responses to questions about homophobia and the testimony of NASA employees before congressional committees. He looks at Jamaican schoolchildren for clues on what biologists call "fluctuating asymmetry"--for example, one eye, hand or foot that is larger than the other; this phenomenon, often caused by poor health, influences the choice of sexual partners in humans.

Trivers is also developing theories about the pattern of gene expression that leads to 'turning off' certain genes in certain body tissues and whether some areas of the brain are under the genetic control of genes passed from only one parent. Embryologists have already discovered that it is not enough to have two copies of a gene (one from each parent) to develop normally; the right copy has to be 'turned on' in the right type of cell. If a child has two copies of a gene from its mother and none from dad, the child may develop serious deformities.

On Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 3:30 p.m., Trivers will talk with biologists in the UHM Biomedical Science Building about genetic conflict within the individual. This lecture is cosponsored by the UHM Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Program and the Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program. Space for this event is limited; for information, phone Tiffany Chang, 956-8552.

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