DETAILS FOR MEMBERS OF THE REGISTERED MEDIA

This聽event is accessible to ticket holders only.聽To attend as a member of media, please make your request to Katherine Gombay, 捆绑SM社区 Media Relations Office at katherine.gombay [at] mcgill.ca

Media check-in time: 5:30 p.m. Media must check in with staff.

Media check-in location:聽Please proceed directly to the media table in the Tanna Schulich Hall lobby with your media credentials.

Parking: With the Greening 捆绑SM社区 initiative, parking is no longer available on campus. There is metered parking on streets around the downtown campus and there are private lots charging by the hour or the day.

Lecture time: 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. including Q&A.

Lecture location: Tanna Schulich Hall located in the Elizabeth Wirth Music Building, 527 Sherbrooke St W. on 捆绑SM社区鈥檚 downtown campus.

The Lecture will be delivered in English only.

NOTES ON PHOTOGRAPHY:

NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ALLOWED
Photos for press with credits and captions will be provided here immediately after the event concludes.

CONTACTS ON SITE:

Katherine Gombay, Media Relations Office, katherine.gombay [at] mcgill.ca

Meaghan Thurston, Associate Director, Research Communications and Marketing, 514-573-6855, meaghan.thurston [at] mcgill.ca (subject: Beatty%20Lecture%20Media%20Inquiry%20)

ABOUT THE 2024 BEATTY LECTURE:

Irish author, playwright, and filmmaker C贸苍补濒 Creedon and Danish evolutionary biologist Eske Willerslev will deliver the 70th Beatty Lecture at 捆绑SM社区 on Tuesday, October 22, 2024 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Tanna Schulich Hall in 捆绑SM社区's Elizabeth Wirth Music Building. Both share a dedication to exploring human history and cultures, enriching our understanding of the world and our place in it. C贸苍补濒 Creedon crafts compelling narratives rooted in Irish life and culture, which have been described as an exploration of 鈥榯he spaghetti bowl of streets鈥� in downtown Cork City, Ireland鈥攚here his family has lived and traded for over a hundred years. His work has received widespread recognition including the Eric Hoffer Book Award, Independent Publishers Gold Award, and multiple Irish National Play Awards. Eske Willerslev is a world-renowned pioneer in ancient DNA research, who has made significant contributions to our understanding of human evolution and the environmental history of ancient ecosystems鈥�providing a roadmap for tackling ongoing threats to our planet, such as climate change, and mapping the historical spread of diseases including Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis. In 2022, in Greenland, he discovered and sequenced the oldest DNA ever found on earth. Each will deliver a lecture followed by a joint Q&A. Nahlah Ayed, host of the CBC Radio One program Ideas, will emcee the event.

The 2024 Beatty Lecture is presented in partnership with the World Cultural Council (WCC). Since 1984, the WCC has held a yearly award ceremony in a different university around the world, granting prizes to outstanding scientists, educators, and artists whose remarkable work in their fields have contributed positively to the cultural enrichment of humankind. This year's ceremony will be held at 捆绑SM社区 on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, when the 2024 Albert Einstein World Award of Science will be bestowed on Eske Willerslev and the 2024 Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts will be bestowed on C贸苍补濒 Creedon. For details visit .

ABOUT THE BEATTY LECTURE:

The Beatty Lecture is one of the longest running public lecture series in North America, and uniquely international in scope, inviting lecturers from around the world to speak at 捆绑SM社区. The Beatty Lecture was established in 1952 in honour of Sir Edward Beatty, chancellor of 捆绑SM社区 from 1920 to 1943. Over the past seven decades, over 90 remarkable lecturers have stood at the Beatty podium, engaging audiences on a wide range of contemporary subjects. Among the notable past Beatty lecturers are political leader Mikhail Gorbachev, visionary author Margaret Atwood, trailblazing scientist Francis Crick, music legend Yehudi Menuhin, environmental activist Wangari Maathi, and tennis legend Arthur Ashe鈥攋ust to name a few. Recent Beatty lecturers include writer and social commentator Roxanne Gay, conservationist Jane Goodall, public health leader Anthony Fauci, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Ressa, and Abenkai documentary filmmaker and artist Alanis Obomsawin. Each Beatty lecturer brings a voice, a story and a perspective uniquely their own to help us understand complex topics and to stimulate public discussion. However, there is always one unifier: each lecturer upholds the Beatty Lecture鈥檚 mission to ignite 鈥楥hange Through Exchange鈥�. Learn more about the Lecture here.

About Eske Willerslev:

Eske Willerslev, Prince Philip Chair of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Cambridge and Lundbeck Foundation Professor at the University of Copenhagen and Director of the Centre of Excellence in GeoGenetics, is renowned for breakthroughs in evolutionary genetics including his pioneering contributions in establishing the field of Environmental DNA鈥攖he recovery of DNA from terrestrial, lake, and ocean sediments in the complete absence of living organisms or fossil remains鈥攁nd the sequencing of ancient DNA to track the origins and interactions of human population groups. His work has broad scientific impact, forcing us to rethink the origins and evolution of human groups, languages, and behaviour, while causing ripples in fields as diverse as medicine, ecology, archaeology, and climate science.

His work has allowed for highly detailed reconstruction of ancient marine and land ecosystems from microbes to plants and vertebrates. In 2022, he published in Nature the reconstruction of a 2-million-year-old ecosystem from Greenland, after discovering and sequencing the oldest DNA ever found on earth. The study was cited as one of Science鈥檚 鈥淏reakthroughs of the Year鈥�. He is now exploring how ecosystems and species adapted to climatic changes in the past and how this knowledge can be applied to agricultural challenges today, such as the development of climate change-resilient crops.

His numerous studies on the sequencing of ancient human genomes have helped rewrite human history from the origins of Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians through to the peopling of Europe and Asia. One byproduct of this is the ability to follow the spread of disease risk and comprehend how it differs among peoples. His group鈥檚 discovery that pathogen DNA can be obtained from ancient teeth has changed our understanding of the evolution and spread of diseases such as the plague, hepatitis B and smallpox. In 2024, an international research team led by Willerlev created the world鈥檚 largest ancient human gene bank, enabling them to determine the origins of diseases including multiple sclerosis and genes known to increase the risk of Alzheimer鈥檚 and type 2 diabetes

His discoveries have borne sway on scientists鈥� approach to Indigenous communities, and even the US Repatriation Law. Respecting Indigenous communities, he has worked alongside Indigenous Peoples and his findings have resulted in the repatriation of various human remains to their rightful descendants including the highly debated Kennewick Man skeleton (The Ancient One) and The Spirit Cave Man mummy. Willerslev is an adopted member of the Crow (Aps谩alooke) federally recognized tribe of Montana.

Willerslev has been awarded numerous honorary doctorates and accolades, including the 2023 Balzan Prize, Foreign Associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences, and Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. He is one of the Web of Science鈥檚 most cited researchers, in the top 1% of his field, with more than 60 publications in Nature and Science. He shares his research results with broad segments of society, promoting science to the public through debate, documentaries, radio, TV, and magazine interviews, and was featured in the 2024 PBS documentary, Hunt for the Oldest DNA.

About C贸苍补濒 Creedon

C贸苍补濒 Creedon is an award-winning novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, documentary film maker, and collaborative artist. His creative practice has been described as an exploration of 鈥榯he spaghetti bowl of streets鈥� in downtown Cork City, Ireland鈥攚here his family has lived and traded for over a hundred years. His detailed investigation of such a tight-knit neighbourhood reveals insights into the universal nature of the human condition and constitutes a significant contribution to the artistic legacy of creative expression.

The diversity of Creedon鈥檚 artistic practice reaches back over thirty years and across various media including books, theatre, film, radio dramas, music, live performance, and collaboration with other artists. When examined in its entirety, his diverse output becomes a single cohesive body of work that resonates far beyond the inner-city streets of his native Cork.

Creedon鈥檚 creative output has received widespread recognition. His latest book, Art Imitating Life Imitating Death (2022), received the 2023 Independent Publishers Gold Award for European Non-Fiction. His novel Begotten Not Made (2019) received the 2020 Eric Hoffer Award USA. His most recent collection of short stories, Pancho and Lefty Ride Again (2021) was awarded the One City One Book Award for Cork City in 2022 and holds the record of being the most borrowed adult fiction book at the Cork City Libraries in 2022.

His stage plays have been produced in the UK, Shanghai and New York to high critical acclaim and have received awards including Best Production at the Irish National Play Awards and two Business to Arts Awards by President of Ireland Mary McAleese. His film documentaries have been screened at the West Belfast Festival, World Expo Shanghai, Origin Theatre Festival New York, and the Irish National Centenary Commemorations.

Nominated Cork City鈥檚 Person of the Year in 2001 and 2018, Creedon was appointed Cultural Ambassador for Cork City in 2020 and awarded Cork City Lord Mayor鈥檚 Cultural Award that year.