(BY MICHAEL A. GOLDMAN, PhD, Professor, Former Chairman of Biology, San Francisco State University). The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Presidential Symposium, titled “Origins of Our Species: Advances in Our Understanding of Ancient Humans in Africa,” began in late afternoon Thursday October 18, and was open to all of the meeting’s ~9,000 attendees (an ASHG meeting attendance record). This symposium featured stimulating presentations by three prominent evolutionary geneticists, followed by a brief panel discussion amongst the three speakers, which was moderated by Dr. Charles N. Rotimi, of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) in Bethesda, Maryland, and Dr. Sarah Tishkoff, of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Rotimi is a Senior Investigator at NIH, and Dr. Tishkoff is David and Lyn Silfen University Professor, Departments of Genetics and Biology, Perelman School of Medicine and School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania. The essence of being human, according to first presenter paleoanthropologist Dr. John D. Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a process, rather than a specific thing. We share a common heritage, and we will make a common future, he said. We are all part of that process whether we share particular traits that are thought to be characteristic of humans, such as speech and walking upright, or not. This simple observation belies the extraordinarily complex and controversial story of human origins featured in the President's Symposium. In a field where each new fossil discovery seems to add yet another gap to the record, Dr. Hawks admits that we still have much to learn, and that we will be continuously surprised, as now is as exciting as any time in the study of human evolution. Dr.Login Or Register To Read Full Story