WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., February 11, 2016—Heather Williams, William Dwight Whitney Professor of Biology and chair of the Neuroscience Program, will present the second lecture in the Williams College Faculty Lecture Series on Thursday, Feb. 18, at 4:15 p.m. in Wege Auditorium, with a reception to follow in Schow Atrium. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Williams’ lecture, titled “What to Sing? Bird Song and the Evolution of Cultural Traditions,” will explore how learned traits, such as bird songs, are transmitted and changed in ways analogous to genes. Male singers may learn from their fathers, older neighbors, or even from males of the same age, and females may prefer certain song characteristics. Using observation (tracking changes in song and relating them to characteristics of the singers), comparisons (contrasting the songs of different populations), and experiments (playing altered songs back to birds in the wild and measuring responses), Williams will show how cultural evolution proceeds and what it might mean.
At Williams since 1988, Williams specializes in animal behavior and neuroscience, with research focusing on birds, especially Savannah sparrows and zebra finches. Her research has been published in numerous journals, includingAnimal Behaviour, and the Journal of Neurobiology, and appears in The Neuroscience of Bird Song (Cambridge University Press 2008). She holds an A.B. from Bowdoin College and a Ph.D. from Rockefeller University. Support for neuroscience honor students working with Williams has come through four grants from the Mary E. Groff Charitable Trust,
This year’s Faculty Research Series will include four more lectures, all taking place in Wege Auditorium, Thompson Chemistry, at 4:15 p.m. over the next four consecutive Thursdays. The next speaker is Associate Professor of Psychology Amie A. Hane, who will give a lecture titled “From the Tide Pool to the Stars…and Back Again: Early Caregiving and Human Neurobehavioral Development.” Future speakers are Laylah Ali, Morgan McGuire, and Justin Crowe.
Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: Noelle.Lemoine@williams.edu