Wednesday 6 March, 2024
Imperial College London, Sir Alexander Fleming Building

Thank you to everyone who attended the Verrall Lecture.

For those of you who missed it or if you want to listen in again, the recording is available on our YouTube channel below.

Please note the venue has changed from the Natural History Museum to Imperial College London.

Imperial College London is a short walk from the Natural History Museum, so you can still enjoy some time exploring the museum before making your way to the lecture.

The Verrall Lecture is an annual public event organised by the Royal Entomological Society, open to all and free to attend. This year’s event will be hosted by Imperial College London’s Centre for Environmental Policy.

The lecture takes place on the first Wednesday in March to coincide with the Annual Meeting of the Verrall Association of Entomologists, the Verrall Supper, which begun in 1887 by G.H. Verrall and is now organised by the Entomological Club.

Young Verrall

In 2021, RES joined with the Amateur Entomologists’ Society to organise the first Young Verrall lecture, with the same lecturer speaking to a younger audience. This takes place on Saturday 2 March at Staffordshire University as part of he Staffordshire Invertebrate Science Fair.

Verrall Lecture 2024

TALK TITLE: Simpson’s question: ​How does behaviour influence evolution?​

We are delighted to welcome Professor Rebecca Kilner to give the 2024 Verrall Lecture.

Professor Rebecca Kilner is an evolutionary biologist from the  University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Pembroke College and Head of University’s Department of Zoology.

Rebecca’s research investigates how social behaviour evolves, and how it then changes the course of evolution. Although she began her research career by studying birds, she saw the light about 15 years ago when she realised she could ask much more interesting evolutionary questions if she focused her work on insects. Her current research combines experimental evolution on laboratory populations of burying beetles with field experiments and population genomics.

Rebecca became 1866 Professor of Zoology at Cambridge University in 2023, was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021 and in 2010 received the Scientific Medal from the Zoological Society of London. You can listen to her talking about her work on the BBC Radio 4’s Life Scientific.

Registration

To attend in person, we encourage you to register for free at the bottom of the page to avoid queues at the venue. There is also the opportunity to turn up on the day.

The lecture will start at 16:30, there will be tea and coffee available from 16:00 outside the lecture hall. There will be an RES stand and rare books on display, so do arrive early to meet key members of the RES team.

If you are unable to attend in person, the talk will be recorded and shared after the event.

Location

The Verrall Lecture will take place in the G16 Lecture Theatre of the Sir Alexander Fleming Building at Imperial College London.

Sir Alexander Fleming Building
Imperial College Road
London
SW7 2AZ

The nearest Tube station is South Kensington, a short walk from Imperial College London. Piccadilly, District and Circle line trains stop at South Kensington. This station is not step-free.

You can find a map of the campus here, the Sir Alexander Fleming Building can be found off Imperial College Road in grid square B3.