Jay Cullen, professor of chemical oceanography at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, will give the annual Darwin Day lecture at Bucknell University on Thursday, Feb. 18, at noon at Trout Auditorium in the Vaughan Literature Building. The talk is free and open to the public.

Cullen’s lecture is titled “The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Learning About Science and Risk Communication.” He will discuss his research surrounding the Fukushima nuclear accident, which was initiated by a tsunami following an earthquake off the coast of Japan in March 2011. In 2014, Cullen led the formation of a new radioactive monitoring network called Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring (InFORM Network), the purpose of which was to conduct research and inform the public about possible risks to the environment and health. Thus far, the research of Cullen and his team has yet to find any threats to public health or the Pacific.

The Department of Biology at Bucknell has organized the annual Darwin Day talk since 2009. International Darwin Day is held on or around the Feb. 12 birthday of biologist Charles Darwin. This talk is co-sponsored by the Department of Biology and the David Burpee Chair in Plant Genetics.