The Depatrment of Integrative Biology and the College of Science present the 2026 Robert M. Storm Distinguished Lecture. Our speaker this year is David Pfennig, Professor of Biology at UNC Chapel Hill. David Pfennig is the lead researcher of the EcoEvoDevo Lab at UNC Chapel Hill. Ecological and Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Eco-Evo-Devo) explores how interactions between genes and the environment shape the development, ecology, evolution, and health of organisms. Much of of the lab's research examines how phenotypic plasticity—the ability of organisms to develop different features in response to different environments—affects the origins, distribution, and preservation of biodiversity.

David's lecture is titled, Plastic Life: How Living Things Shapeshift to Cope with a Changing World. 

The lecture will explore how:

• organisms produce different features depending on environmental conditions (‘plasticity & epigenetics’);
• factors individuals acquire during their lifetime can influence their offspring’s traits (‘nongenetic inheritance’);
• studying ‘plastic life’ can help mitigate disease and species extinction.
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Integrative Biology will be hosting a reception prior to the lecture at 5:30 P.M. in the Cordley Courtyard and the lecture will follow at 6:30 P.M. in Cordley Hall Room 1316. RSVP is required for this event. 

If you are unable to attend in person, you can join Zoom live at https://beav.es/StormLec or YouTube at https://beav.es/IBYouTube for the lecture.