International Darwin Day

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Darwin Day graphic with black illustrated sketch of Darwin

The University of Delaware's annual celebration of Darwin Day, an international event honoring the naturalist’s birthday, explores the lasting impact of his work through an interdisciplinary lens.

Past Event

Event Archive

2026

Held Feb. 12, 2026, at the Roselle Center for the Arts’ Gore Recital Hall, this College of Arts and Sciences International Darwin Day event explored evolution, biology and the human experience.

Caleb Everett, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of anthropology, linguistics and cognitive science, delivered the keynote address, “Darwin and Our Understanding of Humanity.” Flash talks followed from Lisha Shao (“How Evolution Built Brains That Want”), Salil Lachke (“Keeping an Eye on Eye Evolution”) and Molly Sutherland (“One Goal, Many Paths: Cytochrome c Biogenesis Across the Tree of Life”), showcasing cutting-edge research from the Department of Biological Sciences.

Keynote Speaker

Caleb Everett is Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. He is a Professor of Anthropology as well Linguistics and Cognitive Science. Among other topics, his research explores the ways in which cultures and languages evolve. This exploration entails fieldwork in Amazonia and computational analyses of data from many distinct cultures worldwide.

Title of talk: Darwin and our understanding of humanity

Title of Flash Talk: How Evolution Built Brains That Want

Lisha Shao is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware. She earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Tsinghua University and completed postdoctoral training at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus before joining the University in 2021.

She teaches Concepts in Genetics and Molecular Biology and Neurogenetics of Behavior.

Shao’s lab investigates how the brain assigns value to experiences—how stimuli such as food, sex and social cues become “rewards” that shape motivation, learning and decision-making—using the fruit fly as a model system in which genes and neural circuits can be mapped and tested with precision.

Lisha Shao

Biography

Salil Lachke
Biography

Title of Flash Talk: Keeping an Eye on Eye Evolution

Salil Lachke received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Iowa and completed postdoctoral training in developmental genetics at Harvard Medical School.

After working as an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, he joined the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware, where he currently serves as Alumni Distinguished Professor of Biology.

He teaches Molecular Biology of the Cell Honors and Evo-Devo, the new science of evolutionary developmental biology.

His research aims to define conserved genetic pathways underlying human birth defects, with a particular focus on the eye.

Salil Lachke

Biography

Molly Sutherland
Biography

Title of Flash Talk: One Goal, Many Paths: Cytochrome c Biogenesis Across the Tree of Life

Molly Sutherland is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware. She received her B.S. in general biology from the University of Maryland–College Park and her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences, with a concentration in molecular microbiology and microbial pathogenesis, from Washington University in St. Louis. After completing postdoctoral training in the Department of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, she joined the faculty of the University of Delaware in 2020.

At the University, she runs a research laboratory and teaches Introduction to Microbiology and Microbial Genetics. Her research focuses on understanding the process of cytochrome c biogenesis. Cytochromes c play important roles in generating cellular energy in nearly all organisms, from bacteria to humans, so understanding how these proteins are made addresses a fundamental biological question. The Sutherland lab uses genetic, molecular biology and biochemical approaches to gain a detailed mechanistic understanding of bacterial cytochrome c biogenesis and its impact on bacterial metabolism and bioenergetics.