Elgin Community College hosts lecture

Speaker Series: Neanderthals are next topic of ECC Speaker Series Wednesday, Oct. 8. A species that existed more than 250,000 years ago, Neanderthals behaved and appeared different from the modern humans who succeeded them. Illinois State University Professor Fred H. Smith explores those differences during the Elgin Community College 2008-09 Speaker Series. The lecture is 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. in the Advanced Technology Center Auditorium on the ECC main campus, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin.

Smith, professor of anthropology and biological sciences and chair of the department of sociology and anthropology at Illinois State, specializes in the study of Neanderthals and the broader issue of the origin of modern people. He has been a Fulbright Fellow in Croatia, a National Academy of Sciences Visiting Scholar in Yugoslavia and the Czech Republic, and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in Germany. Smith currently serves as president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.

The ECC Liberal, Visual and Performing Arts Division is sponsoring the lecture, which is free and open to the public. Since fall 2006, the Speaker Series navigates today's intellectual landscape by bringing new and renowned speakers to the ECC community.

For details on the 2008-09 Speaker Series, call (847) 214-7864. For information about other events at ECC, visit elgin.edu/calendar.