DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST LECTURE SERIES AT BARD COLLEGE CONTINUES FEBRUARY 10 WITH ZOOLOGIST LOUIS GUILLETTE University of Florida Professor Will Discuss "Alligator Tales: New Lessons about Environmental Contamination"
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series at Bard College continues Saturday, February 10, with zoologist Louis Guillette. His talk, \"Alligator Tales: New Lessons about Environmental Contamination,\" takes place Saturday, February 10, in Olin Hall at 3 p.m. and is free and open to the public. There will be a prelecture talk at 1 p.m. by Frank Scalzo, an associate professor of psychology at Bard. Refreshments will be served between lectures.Guillette’s research focuses on the impact of hormone-disrupting chemicals, such as DDT and PCBs, on reproduction in vertebrates, particularly alligators. In the early 1990s, Guillette, who is a professor of zoology at the University of Florida, was a primary researcher in a landmark study on DDT contamination in Lake Apopka, one of Florida’s most polluted waterways. The study, which received worldwide attention, found stunning reproductive defects in many of the lake’s alligators and turtles, including animals with part-female, part-male genitals. Later, Guillette served as a member of a National Academy of Sciences committee that examined the threat of environmental hormones, or endocrine disrupters, and in 1999 called for more research on their human impact.
\"Dr. Guillette is well known for doing some of the very best work on the long-term
effects of persistent organic pollutants like PCBs, DDT, and other pesticides,\" said Felicia Keesing, assistant professor of biology at Bard. \"His work not only demonstrates the serious consequences these chemicals can have on wildlife, particularly in terms of their reproductive health, but suggests some troubling implications for human health.\"
As part of his work, Guillette has lectured on endocrine disrupting environmental contaminants across the world. He testified as an expert witness before the U.S. Congress Subcommittee on Health and the Environment in 1993 and has served as an expert advisor for the World Wildlife Fund, the National Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as several foreign governments. He is co-editor of the book Endocrine Disrupting Contaminants: An Evolutionary Perspective and has written numerous papers on the subject. Guillette’s work has been supported by the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
For more information about Louis Guillette’s lecture or the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series, call 845-758-7581.
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