Hope College will host Dr. Henry Schwarcz as its Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer for the year 2000. Dr. Schwarcz's topic will be, "How old are We? New Methods for Dating Human Evolution." The lecture will be held at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 1, in Peale Science Center room B50, and is open to the public.

Dr. Schwarcz is a geochemist who has collaborated with archaeologists and paleoanthropologists to study human origins in work that has taken him to Africa, Europe, and Israel. He is a University Professor of Geology Emeritus at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He earned his Ph.D. in Geology from Cal Tech.

Along with studies of human origins, Dr. Schwarcz has studied the chemical composition of human remains to learn about the diets of ancient peoples.

Dr. Schwarcz will also talk about his work in this area at Hope College's annual Science Day on Thursday, Nov. 2.

Besides his anthropological studies, Dr. Schwarcz maintains a wide variety
of active research programs. These include using cave deposits, coral reefs, and fish bones to understand past climate; dating ancient earthquake events; dating archaeological sites; and using stable isotopes in medical studies of energy use and cell growth in infants.

Dr. Schwarcz is being sponsored by the Division of Natural Sciences at Hope College and the Hope College Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. Sigma Xi is an international honor society for scientists and engineers with more than 80,000 members worldwide. It actively promotes scientific research by fostering interactions among science, technology, and society; encourages and supports original scientific research; and honors scientific research accomplishments. 

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