Don't be surprised if you catch a glimpse of a man wearing 19th century garb on the UW-Madison campus next week.

UW-Madison botany professor David Baum said he plans to dress as Charles Darwin -- complete with mutton chops and coattails -- in honor of the 150th anniversary of "The Origin of Species," Darwin's seminal book on evolution.

Baum has reason to celebrate. In addition to the anniversary, UW-Madison is on the cusp of creating a new institute to study evolution.

The J. F. Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution would bring together 70 faculty members from seven colleges, formalizing an existing network of researchers who study evolution.

"The anomaly is not that we have it now, it's that we didn't have anything already," said Baum, who is leading the committee to create the institute.

Most universities of UW-Madison's size have a department or graduate program in evolutionary biology, he said. But at UW-Madison, scientists who study evolution are scattered across campus in different departments.

The theory of evolution is used to make sense of global warming, extinctions of species, threats to livestock, human disease and more. Baum also said he hopes the institute will help people better understand the science behind evolution.

Creationist Ray Comfort has said he will hand out copies of "The Origin of Species" on more than 100 college campuses, including UW-Madison, with an introduction claiming that evolution is scientifically false, according to the National Center for Science Education.

The new institute has been approved by two university committees and needs just one final OK from the University Academic Planning Council, which is scheduled to take it up in December.

The institute would have a starting budget of roughly $7,000, Baum said, although creating a formal entity will allow it to compete for more funds.

It is named for James F. Crow, a professor emeritus of genetics who pioneered mathematical approaches to population genetics and molecular evolution over the past half century.

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