Speaking Tour Celebrates Charles Darwin’s Anniversary

Washington, D.C.–In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, Keith Lockitch, resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, will be speaking on Darwin and evolution at four college campuses this week.

The speaking tour includes the following appearances:

 February 9: University of Texas, Austin.
 February 10: University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.
 February 11: University of Georgia, Athens.
 February 12: University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

According to Dr. Lockitch, “The theory of evolution is often disparaged by its opponents as being ‘just a theory’, a speculative hypothesis with little basis in hard, scientific facts. But this claim carries with it the implied accusation that Charles Darwin was ‘just a theorist’, an armchair scientist whose life’s work was nothing more than an exercise in arbitrary speculation. A look at Darwin’s pioneering discoveries, however, reveals the grave injustice of this accusation.” As Dr. Lockitch explains in his talk, “Darwin was not ‘just a theorist’ and evolution is not ‘just a theory.’”

In this speaking tour, which also celebrates the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s masterpiece On the Origin of Species, Dr. Lockitch explores Darwin’s life and work, focusing on the steps by which he came to discover and prove the theory of evolution by natural selection.

Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest Pays $24,000 in Prizes

IRVINE, CA–University of California Los Angeles undergraduate Robert Sanders, from San Jose, CA, is the winner of the Ayn Rand Institute’s annual “Atlas Shrugged” essay contest, for which he received a prize of $10,000.

Open to 12th graders and both undergraduate- and graduate-level college students, the “Atlas Shrugged” essay contest requires contestants to write on one of several topics dealing with the characters and themes in the novel. The contest is designed to promote critical thinking and writing skills. Essays are judged on both style and content.

With 1,917 contestants, 2008 was the most competitive year in the contest’s history. The previous record was 1,647 contestants in 2003.

The following students have won this year’s second and third prizes:

Second-prize winners ($2,000):

Gregory Arney, Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA
Ryan Krause, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Margaret Wray, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Third-prize winners ($1,000):

Abigail Chernick, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA
Cadmus Kyrala, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Melanie Martin, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
Ryan Menezes, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Tay Tufenkjian, George Washington University, Washington, DC

The contest also awards 20 finalists ($100) and 20 semi-finalists ($50). A complete list of winners and a copy of the first-prize essay can be read online at the Ayn Rand Institute’s website.