Director of the Georgian National Museum, David Lordkipanidze delivered a public lecture “Modern Data on Archaic Homo” at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU) on February 10. The lecture was delivered in frames of “the First Public Lecture of the Year.” Rector of TSU, Giorgi Sharvashidze, students, professors and invited guests attended the event.
Rector Giorgi Sharvashidze said: “A good tradition has been restored at the university. Each year a successful graduate delivers “the First Public Lecture”. This year the lecture was delivered by Director of the Georgian National Museum, David Lordkipanidze. The public lecture will be available to everyone; it will be posted on the Internet and any interested person will be able to view it; in addition, the lecture will traditionally be published in book form. By the next year, we will publish a full collection of all delivered lectures,” Sharvashidze said.
“It is a great honor for me to give a public lecture in a place, where science has been created and is developing. My today’s report involved modern achievements of Georgian scientists in the field of human evolution. These are very important modern discoveries, due to which Georgia takes an important place in the global research process,” David Lordkipanidze said.
David Lordkipanidze, a graduate of the Tbilisi State University, is a corresponding member of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, as well as a foreign member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He has been leading the Georgian National Museum since the day of its establishment in 2004. His research activities are related to studying human evolution and habitat’s history. He has published over 140 scientific papers, including in the world’s leading scientific journals Science Magazine, Nature, PNAS. Lordkipanidze has received many awards, including the Georgias Order of Honor, Award of the Prince of Monaco, the French Order of "Palmes Academiques", the Rolex Award for Enterprise, the Humboldt Prize, etc.
By the end of the public lecture, Rector Sharvashidze awarded the University Medal to Davit Lortkipanidze.
The First Public Lecture of the Year is delivered annually in February. Ivane Javakhishvili delivered the first lecture on February 12, 1918. In frames of “the First Public Lecture of the Year”, Parliamentary Chairman Davit Usupashvili delivered a lecture “Our State” at TSU on February 12, 2015; TSU Emeritus Professor, Academician Mariam Lortkipanidze delivered a public lecture “How did we survive?” in 2016.
