Charles Darwin

Darwin Lecture

Antique clock
Speaker

Richard Lenski

Voyaging in Time with Charles Darwin

What if you could watch evolution happen right before your eyes? For over 35 years, Richard Lenski’s lab has been doing exactly that—running the world's longest-running evolution experiment with bacteria. They've witnessed more than 75,000 generations of E. coli adapting to a simple laboratory environment, which is a bit like watching millions of years of human evolution compressed into just a few decades.

It gets better: bacteria can be frozen and revived years later. It’s like having a time machine: Lenski’s team can literally bring ancient ancestors back to life and compare them with their distant descendants—even pitting them against each other in head-to-head competitions. And the Lenski lab can sequence entire genomes of these bacteria, revealing the mutations that fuel evolutionary change.

This experiment has answered fascinating questions: Does evolution repeat itself when you replay the tape of life? How do organisms balance perfecting what they already do well versus evolving entirely new abilities? And what would Darwin himself have made of what Lenski and his team have discovered?

Join us for a journey through time—both to learn about Charles Darwin and to discover what he never got to see: evolution in action, right before our eyes.

Event Details:

  • Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2026
  • Doors Open: 6:00 p.m.
  • Lecture and Livestream: 7:00 p.m.
  • Location: Calgary Public Library (Central)
  • Address: 800 3 St SE, Calgary
Register here

Our Speaker

Richard Lenski is a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University. He did his undergraduate studies at Oberlin College, majoring in biology, and received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, where he did ecological research on insects. Wanting a system with which he could study evolution in action, Dr. Lenski switched to microbiology for a postdoc at the University of Massachusetts. He joined the faculty at the University of California, Irvine, in 1985, before moving to Michigan State in 1991. Dr. Lenski is best known for the Long-Term Evolution Experiment that he started in 1988, and which continues to this day. He and his team have studied 12 populations of E. coli as they have been evolving for 75,000 generations. The experiment offers a unique record of evolution, providing insights into the dynamics of adaptation by natural selection, the tempo and modes of genome evolution, the repeatability of evolution, and even the origin of new functions. Dr. Lenski is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Society. He is past President of the Society for the Study of Evolution, and he co-founded the NSF-funded BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, which brought together biologists, computer scientists, and engineers. He has received a Friend of Darwin award from the National Center for Science Education for his public-facing work on evolution and its importance. Last, but not least, Dr. Lenski has mentored some 30 graduate students and postdoctoral scientists who are now on the faculties of universities around the world.