CANCELED: Amphibian Biologist Tyrone B. Hayes on Pesticide Risks

Tyrone B. Hayes, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, will speak at the Antioch University New England (AUNE) Environmental Studies Colloquium on Friday, April 29. His talk, From Silent Spring to Silent Night: A Tale of Toads and Men, will be held at 11:30 a.m. in the Community Room at AUNE. It is free and open to the public.

Hayes is a professor in the Laboratory for Integrative Studies in Amphibian Biology, where he researches environmental factors in the growth and development of amphibians. He designed and maintains the website Atrazinelovers to alert the public to the dangers of the herbicide atrazine as an environmental contaminant.

Hayes’ studies of amphibians show that atrazine chemically castrates and feminizes exposed male amphibians. He contends that pesticides probably play an important role in the decline of some populations, and that danger from exposure may extend beyond amphibians to humans.

Hayes was born in Columbia, South Carolina, where he learned to love biology, especially amphibians. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1989. In 1993 he earned a PhD from the Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, where he was hired in 1994 and made a full professor in 2003.