Daily Archives: March 24, 2015

Sunday, April 12, 6:00 pm – Literary Lights

by

The Associates of the Boston Public Library invite you to the 27th Annual Literary Lights Dinner on Sunday, April 12 beginning at 6 pm at The Boston Park Plaza Hotel.  This year the honorees are Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Author of Infidel, presented by Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns, Katherine Boo, author of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, presented by Jill Ker Conway, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex, presented by Alan Lightman, Wendell and Florence Minor, husband and wife collaborators on children’s books (pictured below,) presented by Mary Higgins Clark, Amor Towles, author of Rules of Civility, presented by Claire Messud, and Niall Ferguson, Keynote Speaker and author of The War of the World, presented by David Gergen.  Tickets ($475 and up) are available on line at www.literarylights.org. Proceeds will support the David McCullough Conservation Fund, William O. Taylor Art Preservation Fund, Associates Endowment Fund, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library’s operations.

Thursday, April 9, 6:00 pm – Evolution in a Vortex: Fish Diversity in the Lower Congo River

by

Join the Harvard Museum of Natural History on Thursday, April 9 at 6 pm for another in its Evolution Matters Lecture Series.  Melanie L. J. Stiassny, Axelrod Research Curator of Fishes at the American Museum of Natural History, will speak on Evolution in a Vortex: Fish Diversity in the Lower Congo River.  The talk will take place in the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge.

Some of the most spectacular cataracts, falls, and gorges on Earth are found in the lower Congo River, in the heart of central Africa, near the twin Congolese capitals of Kinshasa and Brazzaville. This stretch of the river is also home to over 300 different species of fish, many with unique adaptations—including bizarre morphologies—that enable them to survive in an environment with intense rapids. Based on her many years collecting, documenting, and studying the fish in the lower Congo River, Melanie Stiassny will discuss the river’s unique hydrological and geographical characteristics and their role in driving the evolution and diversification of its exceptional fish fauna.

The Evolution Matters Lecture Series is supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit.  Free and open to the public.  Free parking is available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.