Assoc Prof Himla Soodyall

Assoc Prof Himla Soodyall was the inaugural speaker for the Darwin Seminars, a lecture series organised by the Africa Genome Education Institute, which is devoted to the public understanding of modern biology.

Soodyall, who is the director of the Human Genomic Diversity and Disease Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, spoke at the Wolfson Pavilion in the new IIDMM building on the topic Swimming in the Gene Pool, examining Darwin's influence on modern theories of diversity, evolution and inheritance.

The next Darwin Seminar is set to take place on September 14 when UCT's Dr Rebecca Rogers Ackermann, from the archaeology department, will address the topic Hobbits, Hybrids and Human Evolution.

The African Genome Education Institute was launched this year as a legally-incorporated, not-for-gain company with the objective to "spread the word about the wonders of discovery science in the genome domain and debate its consequences".