February 19 - MATTHEW JAMES, Ph.D. - "Collecting Evolution: The Unintended Vindication of Charles Darwin by the 1905-06 Galapagos Expedition of the California Academy of Sciences."
Matthew James grew up on Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands where he attended school from kindergarten through college. He attended graduate school at the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and received his Ph.D. in Paleontology from the University of California at Berkeley. He has been a member of the Department of Geology at Sonoma State University since 1985, and currently serves as Department Chair. He teaches courses in paleontology, geologic field mapping, dinosaurs, and the natural history of the Hawaiian Islands. He has worked on Galapagos paleontology, conservation, and history since 1982. His writing on the 1905-06 Galapagos expedition won the 2011 Karl Kortum Award for Maritime History from the San Francisco Maritime Museum. On Friday evening, April 6, 2012, Professor James will deliver the 2012 Peter Leveque Natural History Lecture at Santa Rosa Junior College.