Hurd to Give Herwick Professorship Inaugural Lecture
Lawrence E. Hurd, professor of biology at Washington and Lee University, will give the Herwick Professor in Biology Inaugural Lecture on Tuesday, March 3, at 7 p.m. in Northen Auditorium, Leyburn Library. Hurd was named to the professorship last fall 2008.
The title of his talk is “Nature, Red in Tooth and Claw: A Predatory Life.” It is free and open to the public.
Hurd joined the Washington and Lee faculty in 1993 as a full professor and served as head of the biology department for 15 years. Previous to this he was a professor of biology at the University of Delaware for 20 years. He is currently editor in chief of the Annals of the Entomological Society of America and fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London.
Hurd has authored more than 90 publications in journals including Science, American Naturalist, Ecology, Environmental Entomology and Animal Behaviour. He is also co-editor of “The Praying Mantids” (Johns Hopkins Press, 1999).
Hurd’s current research interests include tropical biodiversity, indicator species and human coexistence with nature; plant community succession and arthropod consumer diversity; and what regulates predator populations. A graduate of Hiram College, Hurd received his Ph.D. from Syracuse University.
The John T. Herwick, M.D., Professorship in Biology was created in 2008 by Dr. John T. Herwick, W&L Class of 1936, and his wife, Mary T. Herwick, as a memorial to Oscar E. and Edith D. Herwick, Dr. Herwick’s parents. The donors’ gift honors William Dana Hoyt, Ph.D., W&L professor of biology from 1920 to 1945, who was Dr. Herwick’s professor from 1932 to 1936.
