Who’s Spencer Wells?

Dr. Spencer Wells is a celebrated geneticist, who studies human diversity.  He is the author of 41 papers and two books, the author and presenter of the PBS/National Geographic documentary Journey of Man: a Genetic Odyssey, as well as several other documentaries for National Geographic, the director of the Genographic project, a popular explorer and lecturer, and the new Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor.

“Where did we come from, and how did we get to where we live today?”

So read the flyer distributed by The Cornell Center for Comparative and Population Genomics promoting yesterday’s lecture by Spencer Wells, PhD., director of the Genographic Project at the National Geographic Society.

There were few empty seats in Call Auditorium in Kennedy Hall yesterday evening, where Ithaca residents and members of the Cornell community gathered to hear Wells speak.

“It’s great to see such a high turnout, especially on tax day,” Wells said. “I’m glad all of you aren’t off doing strange things with teabags.”