Please arrive 15 minutes prior to the event for registration. Lecture from 4 to 5 p.m
Light refreshments and beverages will be available during the reception from 5 to 6 p.m.

Precious Birds and Flying Flowers: The Sensory World of Butterflies

The mysterious beauty of butterflies has dazzled us from ancient times to modern. What makes them beautiful is partly in the eye of the beholder. Join us on a scientific tour of the role that visual senses play in ecosystems and the surprising sensory world inhabited by these enchanting insects.

Register to Attend the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture

About Professor Briscoe

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Adriana D. Briscoe grew up in Colton, California. She received a BA in Philosophy, a BS in Biological Sciences, and an MA in Philosophy from Stanford University and a PhD in Biology from Harvard University. She is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. Briscoe is known for studies of how color vision mediates ecological interactions between butterflies, host plants, and the environment, in the context of mimicry and species recognition. Her discoveries have been featured on television and in museums both in the USA and in Europe. She has written and spoken about the importance of teachers in developing future scientists and the need for increased funding for Black, Indigenous people of color (BIPOC) teacher training in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in order to create a more just and diverse scientific workforce. She is leading the sequencing of California butterfly genomes for conservation purposes.

Briscoe previously held a research fellowship at St. John’s College, University of Cambridge, U.K. She is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the California Academy of Sciences, and she was honored with the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, the first woman and third person overall to have been given all three of these awards. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Author of numerous articles and book chapters, Dr. Briscoe has delivered over 100 invited lectures. Her writing has appeared in The Conversation and LatinoRebels and in over 30 media outlets.

Learn more about Professor Briscoe’s research here.