Ecologist Dr. Carol Yoon Presents at Berea College Convocation, Dec. 2, 2010

11/30/10

On Thursday, December 2 at 3 p.m., ecologist and evolutionary biologist Dr. Carol Yoon will speak at a convocation in Phelps Stokes auditorium. She will talk about her new book Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science. The convocation is free and open to the public. In her new book Yoon tells the story of scientists leading people away from the impulse to name the living world, even as they are driven by it. According to Yoon’s website, Naming Nature is a journey from Linnaeus, whose system turned biological classification from a hobby to a science to today’s dream of naming all of earth’s species and listing them online. The New York Times writes that Yoon’s book is “A lively blend of popular scientific history and cultural criticism, itself defying simple classification.” Naming Nature won the 2010 Washington State Book Award and was chosen as a finalist for LA Times Book Prize.

Born and raised in Sherborn, Massachusetts, Yoon studied biology at Yale University. She graduated in 1985 and was awarded the university’s Boell Prize in Biology. She continued her studies at Cornell University where earned a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology in 1991. A year later Yoon began writing for The New York Times first as a news clerk then later as a regular and frequent contributor.

This is the last Berea College convocation of the year. The next convocation will be on January 17, 2011, and feature Dr. Dorothy Cotton who will speak about “Women of the Civil Rights Movement.”

For information about all Berea College convocations visit www.berea.edu/convocations. Learn about other campus events on the college’s web calendar at http://community.berea.edu/calendar