By Casey Wheeless

The man who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995 for identifying genes that control specific steps in development will speak at UK on Monday.

Eric Wieschaus, a Nobel laureate and professor of molecular biology at Princeton University, will give two lectures at UK: a scientific lecture and one for the general public. Both comprise the

Thomas Hunt Morgan Seminar, an event UK hopes will be annual. The lectures are open to everyone and are free.

The scientific lecture is to be held on Monday at 11 a.m. in the W.T. Young Library Auditorium and the general lecture is scheduled for that night at 7:30 p.m. in room 107 of the Thomas Hunt Morgan Building.

Thomas Hunt Morgan was considered the father of modern genetics and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for his discoveries of the role of chromosomes in heredity.

Wieschaus said the work that won him the Nobel Prize was the first time anybody had ever tried to describe embryonic development in a complete way, in terms of genes and genes being required for specific steps.

He used the same genetics which Morgan had pioneered with experiments and discovered steps in embryonic development.

In the scientific lecture Wieschaus plans to speak about recent experiments that have to do with the relationship between genes and proteins, and express specific cells and embryos and what causes those cells to change shape.

“There will be a lot of genetics, a lot of cell biology, but also physics modeling and modern imaging of cells,” he said.

Wieschaus also plans to not just talk about the understanding of genes and proteins, but the actual relationship between genes and proteins.

For the general public lecture, Wieschaus said he wants to take a step back from a mechanical genetic understanding of single cell behavior and take a look at the bigger picture. He plans to talk about patterns of embryos and the relationship between fruit fly embryos and human embryos.

“It’s good for the public to have a sense of where we are coming from as scientists,” Wieschaus said.

Vincent Cassone, chair of the biology department, said the department plans to make the Thomas Hunt Morgan Seminar an annual event that commemorates their most famous biology graduate.

He also said the department hopes to do this lecture in the fall.

“We want to elevate the reputation of the department and also to help people learn a little more about biology,” Cassone said.

Cassone also said that at the general lecture the department will be honoring Weischaus with a plaque for being the first Thomas Hunt Morgan lecturer, and will also be honoring graduate and undergraduate students who have done excellent research in biology and have received Ribble scholarships.