CHESTERTOWN, MD—World-renowned herpetologist Michael E. Dorcas will visit Washington College on Friday, April 26, to deliver a seminar on the environmental crisis caused by the invasive Burmese python in the Florida Everglades. His talk will take place at 4:00 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, Toll Science Center, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. It is free and open to the public. 

A professor of biology and director of the Herpetology Lab at Davidson College, Dorcas is an award-winning educator, a prominent conservationist and an accomplished author. Widely known for his research on the biology and ecology of reptiles and amphibians, including the invasive pythons of the American Southeast, he has written seven books on snakes, frogs and toads in the United States. His latest, Invasive Pythons in the United States: Ecology of an Introduced Predator, was co-written with J.D. Wilson and published by the University of Georgia Press in 2011. In his April 26 talk, he will address both the environmental and the social changes the Burmese python is creating in Florida. 

A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dorcas received a Senior Research Award from the Association of Southeastern Biologists and the 2012 Meritorious Teaching Award from the World Congress of Herpetology Biologists. 

The April 26 presentation is sponsored by the McLain Program in Environmental Studies, The Department of Biology, The Beta Beta Beta Biological Honor Society, the Department of Education, and an anonymous donation in memory of Nancy Silcox.

 Photo by Michael Rochford.