The Director of Training, Communication and Awareness of the Biodiversity Foundation, a public foundation of the Government of Spain, under the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, Julia Vera, participated this morning in Santander, in the inauguration of the course “Darwin and evolution: 200 years of controversy”.

Organized by the Official College of Geologists, with the collaboration of the Biodiversity Foundation and within the framework of the summer meetings of the Menéndez Pelayo International University, the course proposes, from today to Friday, an approach to the current situation of the Theory of Evolution, when the bicentenary of the birth of the English naturalist is celebrated.

With his concept of the development of all forms of life through the slow process of natural selection, Charles Darwin (1809-1882) laid the foundations of the modern Theory of the Evolution of species. A methodical naturalist, Darwin managed, after patient years of work and long voyages of exploration, to elaborate one of the core theories of modern biodiversity. The course will emphasize the geological facet of the scientist and his contribution to the constitution of geology as a science, by the hand of his reference Charles Lyell.

As a tribute, and to contribute to the dissemination of the work of these pioneers of science, prominent researchers from the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGMA), the Illustrious Official College of Geologists, the Spanish Society for the History of Science and Technology (SEHCYT) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), as well as professors from the University of Alcalá de Henares, the Complutense University of Madrid, the University of Cordoba, the UNED, the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Cuban Academy of Sciences will speak this week at the Cantabrian Maritime Museum, in Santander.