Bryan Priestman Memorial Lecture 2026

Dr. Dolph Schluter presents: The origin of modern species

March 16, 2026, at 7 p.m. in Head Hall room C13
Reception to follow in Allison D. McCain Commons

Join UNB’s faculty of science for an engaging, in-person presentation by evolutionary biologist and professor at University of British Columbia, Dr. Dolph Schluter.

Biodiversity is the universe’s crowning achievement, a product of the origin and accumulation of species. New species continue to arise in nature, although the rate is highly uneven over the face of the earth, providing clues to the causes.

These days, new species are also being genetically engineered in laboratories. Darwin’s proposal that the origin of wild species—his “mystery of mysteries”— occurs by natural selection is now regarded as correct. Our understanding of how this happens has lately been informed by the study of species that formed very recently.

Schluter explains how our concept of species has changed since Darwin and uses the example of stickleback, a group of fish that include some of the world’s youngest species, to identify ways by which new species evolve.

Please register for this free public event. Everyone is welcome.

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The Bryan Priestman Memorial Lecture Series, held at UNB Fredericton, was established in 1946 to commemorate Bryan Priestman, a professor of physics at UNB who died in 1945 while attempting to save a boy from drowning in the Saint John River.

Backyard History’s Andrew MacLean recently documented Bryan Priestman’s incredible story. He will introduce the 2026 lecture and pay tribute to the series’ namesake as we mark 80 years of thought-provoking lectures.