This academic year is a big one for biologists, marking 150 years since the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and, on Feb. 12, Darwin’s 200th birthday. Meanwhile, Princeton can celebrate another biology landmark: One century ago, Edwin Grant Conklin became the first full-time head of the biology department. He would serve for 25 years, guiding the young department and giving the Princeton University Press its first best-seller in Heredity and Environment, published in 1914.  

PAW notes these anniversaries with a profile of Conklin by W. Barksdale Maynard ’88 and an interview with Princeton anthropologist Alan Mann, curator of a traveling exhibit on human evolution. We hope these articles convey a small sense of the great awe of the natural world that Conklin shared with his Princeton students.  

Marilyn H. Marks *86
mmarks@princeton.edu