Charles Darwin was born in 1809. The bicentenary of his birth will be celebrated at the University of Cambridge and elsewhere in 2009. I have been invited to spend 2006-2007 at Christ's College, Cambridge (Darwin's alma mater) and at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge. My work in Cambridge would be directed towards the enhancement of scholarly and public understanding of Darwin's contributions to the earth sciences. The scholarly aspect of my work in 2006-2007 would involve a study of latenineteenth and twentieth century geology showing how Darwin's work became integrated with the work of other researchers. The results of this study would be presented as a paper to the Darwin 2009" conference in Cambridge to which I have been invited. To make Darwin's geological work more accessible to scholars and to the general public I would transcribe Darwin's geological specimen notebooks and arrange for them to be posted online. With others I would also work to organize an expedition to recreate Darwin's geological researches in the Galapagos Islands. In addition to these activities I would work with others to shape an exhibit on Darwin as a geologist for display at the Sedgwick Museum in 2009. Here I would hope to further cooperation among museums internationally in displaying materials relevant to the history of geology, emphasizing the public utility of such knowledge. This would include facilitating communication among historians of science, geologists, and museum curators in Cambridge and those in the United States.
