The symposium, "Anthropogeny: Defining the Agenda," will be held on Friday, Sept. 19. The symposium is free and open to the public. Talks will address subjects ranging from anthropology and prehistoric art to neurosciences and cognition. Among the featured speakers scheduled are Bernard Wood, Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Origins at George Washington University and a senior scientist at the National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; Tetsuro Matsuzawa, director of the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University, in Japan; and Svante Pääbo, director, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. (Full schedule follows.)
CARTA is based on an effort that has already been under way for more than 10 years, coordinated by the UC San Diego Project for Explaining the Origin of Humans (which is the definition of "anthropogeny"). That group, composed of leading scientists in various disciplines from throughout the world, has organized multi-disciplinary meetings and symposia -- efforts that will now be converted into a larger and more public research program that will also facilitate graduate and undergraduate education.
The goals of CARTA are essentially scholarly and range from understanding more about human and primate genetics and evolution to advancing relevant knowledge in areas such as language, communication and cognition, human society and culture.
According to the center's co-director, Ajit Varki, M.D., professor of medicine and cellular and molecular medicine at UC San Diego, definitive answers are most likely to come from discussions and studies that bring together a wide variety of approaches.
"CARTA is ‘transdisciplinary,' meaning it transcends or goes beyond traditional disciplines, and breaks down the walls between them. In doing so, we are more likely to succeed, by eliminating the concept of individual disciplines, and instead looking at knowledge as a broad-based continuum," said Varki.
Proposed activities of the new center include developing an online museum of comparative anthropogeny; organizing access to resources for great ape research; stewardship of the library, electronic database, serum and skeletal collections donated by the Primate Foundation of Arizona; facilitating a graduate elective course on human origins at UC San Diego as well as the teaching of evolutionary principles at the UCSD School of Medicine; and development of a peer-reviewed journal, among others.
CARTA leadership also intends to facilitate formation of a graduate faculty that will set up a specialization track in anthropogeny within the next few years
The other CARTA co-directors are Fred H. Gage, Ph.D., professor in the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute and adjunct professor of neurosciences at UC San Diego, and Margaret Schoeninger, professor of anthropology at UC San Diego. Associate director is Pascal Gagneux, Ph.D., assistant professor of cellular and molecular medicine at UC San Diego and a specialist in human and primate molecular evolution. Support for IT infrastructure and informatics is being provided by the San Diego Supercomputer Center and Calit2, by John Moreland working with Chaitan Baru, Ph.D. The G. Harold & Leila Y. Mathers Foundation, which has supported the symposia over the past 10 years, has committed $3 million to launch the new center. Ms. Annette Merle-Smith of Philadelphia, Pa., is also a major sponsor of the symposia.
CARTA Opening Ceremony
"Anthropogeny: Defining the Agenda"
Co-Chairs: Ajit Varki and Margaret J. Schoeninger, UC San Diego
Fred H. Gage, Salk Institute
SESSION I: Chair, Dr. Margaret J. Schoeninger
Professor, Department of Anthropology, UCSD, CARTA co-director
1:20 p.m. Bernard Wood, Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology at George Washington University and adjunct senior scientist at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
"Paleoanthropology"
1:40 p.m. Kristen Hawkes, distinguished professor of anthropology, University of Utah.
"Hunter-Gatherers and Life Histories"
2 p.m. James J. Moore, associate professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego.
"Behavioral Ecology"
2:20 p.m. Tetsuro Matsuzawa, professor and director, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan.
"Primatology"
2:40 p.m. Derek Denton (with Maria Myers), founding director, Howard Florey Institute of Experimental Physiology and Medicine, University of Melbourne.
"Prehistoric Art"
3 p.m. Break
SESSION II: Chair, Fred H. Gage, professor and Vi and John Adler Chair,
Salk Institute for Biological Studies, CARTA co-director.
3:20 p.m. Francisco J. Ayala, University Professor and Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine.
"Pathogens"
3:40 p.m. Svante Pääbo, director, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
"Genomics"
4 p.m. Jon Kaas, Centennial Professor of Psychology at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
"Neurosciences"
4:20 p.m. Terrence Sejnowski, professor and laboratory head, Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Sciences.
"Cognition"
4:40 p.m. David Perlmutter, professor emeritus of linguistics, University of California, San Diego; past president, Linguistics Society of America.
"Linguistics"
5 p.m. Ajit Varki, CARTA co-director, professor of medicine and cellular & molecular medicine, co-director, Glycobiology Research and Training Center, associate dean for physician-scientist training, UCSD.
Closing remarks