Iowa City community members and students will gather this weekend to celebrate the annual Iowa City Darwin Day Science Fest, a series of events dedicated to platforming contemporary science to both commemorate and challenge Charles Darwin’s research.

The event will feature three speakers from April 12-13, including UI associate professor Heather Sander, Harmit Malik of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and, most notably, celebrated evolutionary biologist Joseph Graves Jr.

“We have a great line up this year,” Deirdre Egan, a fest committee member, said. “I’m particularly excited about Joseph Graves’ talk. It’s based on his recent book, which is about his journey from a child in the Jim Crow era to one of the leading scientists in evolutionary biology.”

He has two other books about scientific racism and has consistently made the case that evolutionary science can be a powerful force for social justice.

Though celebrated internationally, Darwin Day was first introduced in Iowa City in 2007 by John and Ginny Stamler.

“This was at a time when there were a lot of attacks on evolution and a lot of fights about whether evolution should be taught in schools,” UI professor Maurine Neiman, said. “John and Ginny wanted to push back against this by organizing a really positive event that celebrates science and helps spread the word about what evolution actually is.”

The Darwin Day speakers will emphasize the importance of evolution in everyday life. One of the speakers, Malik, studies viruses and how our bodies interact with them.

“Harmit [Malik’s] work is very medically relevant,” Neiman said. In Malik’s talk on Saturday, “Ghosts and Gifts of Ancient Viruses,” he will explain how ancient viruses can tell people about their body’s response to modern human diseases.

The third speaker, Sander, will discuss urban wildlife, ecology, and conservation.

“[Sander’s] work helps people realize that it’s important to pay attention to the human-wildlife environment in their own backyard, things like the distribution of garbage cans and obese squirrels,” Neiman said.

Briante Lewis Najev, a UI biology graduate student and Darwin Day organizer, said the university hosted a speaker last year that talked about zombies.

 “Who doesn’t want to talk about zombies?” Najev said.