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One of the scientists behind “one of the most influential biological studies ever” will visit Eastern Kentucky University on Thursday, Feb. 1, to discuss his role in the groundbreaking experiment.

Lee Dugatkin, co-author of “How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution,” will join the year-long Chautauqua lecture series exploring transformations. Free and open to the public, the Dugatkin lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. in O’Donnell Hall of the Whitlock Building.

“How to Tame a Fox” tells the story of the landmark scientific experiment that has jump-started evolution by domesticating 56 generations of wild Siberian foxes over the span of 60 years. The book was co-written with Lyudmila Trut, one of the original scientists who began the experiment more than half a century ago.

Dugatkin and Trut’s book, which was described by the New York Times as “sparkling… a story that is part science, part Russian fairy tale, and part spy thriller,” has received much critical acclaim, garnering positive reviews from Scientific American, LA Review of Books and the Science News. 

Dugatkin is also the author of nine books, including “Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose,” which he discussed in a previous Chautauqua lecture, and more than 100 scientific articles on the evolution of behavior. He is a contributing author to Scientific America, The New Scientist, Newsday, Cerebrum, BioScience, and The Wilson Quarterly. Between 1996 and 2003, he contributed more than 80 science columns to the Louisville Courier Journal.

Dugatkin enjoys sharing his research with others through his work as a Distinguished University Scholar and professor of biology at the University of Louisville.     

The Dugatkin lecture will be sponsored by the College of Science and the Department of Biological Sciences.

For more information about the Chautauqua lecture series, visit www.chautauqua.eku.edu or contact Chautauqua Lecture Coordinator Erik Liddell at erik.liddell@eku.edu.