Dr. Lynn Margulis, Distinguished University Professor at the University of Massachusetts, has been named the 11th recipient of the Nevada Medal Award. Founded 10 years ago by the Desert Research Institute and Nevada Bell, the Nevada Medal is a national award given annually by DRI to recognize outstanding achievement in science, engineering, and technology.

Margulis is internationally known for her research on the evolution of cells and the largely unheralded role of bacteria and other basic cellular lifeforms in influencing and regulating biological processes and environmental conditions.

She is the leading proponent of the idea that symbiogenesis, the merger of previously independent organisms, is as important to the process of evolutionary change as the more prominent "survival of the fittest" doctrine of competition. Considered revolutionary when first proposed, this concept is now widely accepted among scientists. It is also a fundamental part of the "Gaia hypothesis" of the earth as an interactive system of organisms, an hypothesis originally formulated by British scientist James Lovelock.

Margulis is a member of both the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and holds six honorary doctorates from other universities. She has also contributed to biological education from the primary through university levels and has published many popular books and articles.

Margulis will receive the Nevada Medal at the Nevada Medal Dinner on April 23 at Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino. Nevada Governor Bob Miller and First Lady Sandy Miller will once again serve as co-chairs of the event.

Tickets are $1,000 for a table of 10 or $100 per ticket. For more information about the dinner, call Wini Whitfield at (702)895-0530.

Margulis will also present public lectures at the University of Nevada, Reno on April 22 and the University of Nevada Las Vegas on April 24. For more information about the lectures, call (702) 673-7350 in Reno and (702) 895-0530 in Las Vegas.