This endowed lecture series facilitates campus visits and presentations by prominent speakers with expertise at the interface of science and history. In the past, the series has hosted a broad range of speakers from varied academic disciplines.
Simpson was a distinguished faculty member who began his 55-year career at UMaine with the College of Life Sciences — which has since been renamed to the College of Earth, Life, and Health Sciences — and the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station in 1931. His research program focused on aphids in potato plants. Simpson served as the chair of the Entomology Department from 1954 until his retirement in 1974. He was the first recipient of the UMaine Presidential Research Achievement Award. Awarded emeritus status upon retirement, he continued to work part-time as an editor with the experiment station. UMaine Professor emeritus David C. Smith dedicated his history of the station to Simpson, noting that Simpson was “one of three men whose work I admire.”
