Phillip V. Tobias, one of the world's leading experts on human ancestors, will give a public talk about his experiences in the field, "Eureka Moments in My Career," Thursday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Morrison Room (A106) of Corson Hall, Cornell University. The talk is free and open to the public.

A visiting A. D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell, Tobias is professor of anatomy and human biology emeritus and honorary director of the Palæo-Anthropology Research Unit of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

"Dr. Tobias is the leading paleoanthropologist in the world today," said Kenneth A. R. Kennedy, a Cornell professor of ecology and evolutionary biology who has known Tobias for more than 30 years and is his faculty host for the Cornell visit. "His major contributions to paleoanthropology include studies of the australopithecine fossils from Sterkfontein and Olduvai Gorge and Homo habilis fossils from various sites in East Africa."

Tobias, who was a leading opponent of South Africa's policy of apartheid, has been honored for his work in many areas, including hominid paleontology, human biological diversity and genetics, skeletal biology and comparative anatomy. In 1998, Tobias received the Charles R. Darwin Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, which includes a bronze figure of Darwin sculpted by Roberto Bertoia, Cornell associate professor of art. Tobias's other honors include three Nobel Prize nominations, a dozen honorary doctorates and South Africa's Order for Meritorious Service. Tobias has authored or co-authored 33 books, and edited or co-edited eight others.

For more information about the Tobias visit, contact Kennedy at (607) 274-4214.

Cornell's Andrew D. White Professors-at-Large program was started in 1965 in honor of the university's first president. Participants are chosen for their prominence in diverse disciplines and are appointed for six-year terms and are considered full members of the Cornell faculty.