Past speakers

2019 Catherine Dulac, Ph.D.
Higgins Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology Investigator, HHMI
"Neurobiology of Social Behavior Circuits"

2019 Ehud Y. Isacoff, Ph.D.
Director, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, Professor of Neurobiology, UC Berkeley
"Conformational dynamics and dimer tuning of metabotropic glutamate receptors"

2018 Marc Montminy, MD, Ph.D.
Professor, Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology,
and J.W. Kieckhefer Foundation Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
"Can You Hear Me Now? How CREB and its Cofactors Activate Distinct Metabolic Programs in Different Tissues"

2017 Richard D. Palmiter, Ph.D.
Investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Professor of Biochemistry and Genome Sciences
University of Washington
"A neural circuit that responds to threats and controls appetite"

2016 David Paterson, Ph.D.
Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology, University of Oxford
Watch the lecture.
"Neurocardiology: therapeutic opportunity?"

2015 David J. Anderson, Ph.D.
Seymour Benzer Professor of Biology
Investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute California Institute of Technology
"Internal states and behavioral decisions: the paradox of sex and violence"

2014 Dennis A. Dougherty, Ph.D.
George Grant Hoag Professor of Chemistry
California Institute of Technology
"Chemistry on the Brain: Understanding the Nicotine Receptor"

2013 Cori Bargmann, Ph.D.
Investigator, HHMI
Torsten N. Wiesel Professor
The Rockefeller University
President of Science for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative 
"Neuromodulation and regulation of long-term behavioral states"

2012 William A. Catterall, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Pharmacology
University of Washington
"Structure and Function of Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels at Atomic Resolution"

2011 Joseph S. Takahashi, Ph.D.
Investigator, HHMI
Department of Neuroscience
University of Texas SW Medical Center
"Genetic Analysis of Circadian Clocks in Mammals"

2010 Jeffrey M. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D.
Investigator, HHMI
Marilyn M Simpson Professor
Laboratory of Molecular Genetics
The Rockefeller University
2010 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
"Leptin and the Biologic Basis of Obesity"

2009 Henry A. Lester, Ph.D.
Bren Professor of Biology
California Institute of Technology
"Changes in the Brain Produced by Chronic Exposure to Nicotine"

2008 Mu-Ming Poo, Ph.D.
Paul Licht Distinguished Professor in Biology
Head, Division of Neurobiology
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
University of California, Berkeley
"Spike timing dependent plasticity - Hebb's postulate revisited"

2007 Peter C. Agre, M.D., Ph.D.
2003 Nobel Prize Recipient in Chemistry
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
James B. Duke Professor of Cell Biology
Vice Chancellor for Science and Technology
Duke University School of Medicine, NC
"Aquaporin Water Channels: From Atomic Structure to Clinical Medicine"

2006 Arthur Karlin, Ph.D.
Higgins Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics
Director, Center for Molecular Recognition
Columbia University, New York, NY
"The Elusive Gates of CYS-Loop Receptors"

2005 Lily Y. Jan, Ph.D.
Jack & DeLoris Lange Endowed Chair in Physiology & Biophysics
University of California, San Francisco, CA
"Potassium Channels"

2004 Huda Akil, Ph.D.
Gardner C. Quarton Distinguished
University Professor of Neurosciences
Co-Director and Research Professor
Mental Health Research Institute
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
"Searching for the Neurobiological Basis of Moods and Emotions"

2003 Gary Yellen, Ph.D.
Professor of Neurobiology
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
"The Moving Parts of Voltage-Gated Ion Channels"

2002 Chris Miller, Ph.D.
Professor of Biochemistry
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Brandeis University, MA
"Chloride Channels in Bacteria: They're Not Just for Structural Biologists Any More!"

2001 John E. Dowling, Ph.D.
Llura and Gordon Gund Professor of Neuroscience
Harvard University, MA
"Fishing for Novel Genes"

2000 Clay M. Armstrong, M.D.
Professor of Physiology
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, PA
Lasker Basic Medical Research Award 1999
with Bertil Hille and Roderick MacKinnon
"Selectivity, Block and Gating in Ion Channels: Subtle Relations"

1998 William D. Willis Jr., M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Chair, and Chief of the Division of Comparative Neurobiology
Marine Biomedical Institute University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX
"The Role of Second Messenger Systems in Central Sensitization of Spinothalamic Neurons"

1997 Roger Y. Tsien, Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacology & Chemistry
University of California, San Diego
2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
"Mechanism of Cerebellar Long-Term Depression Elucidated with Caged Compounds"

1996 Bertil Hille, Ph.D.
Professor of Physiology & Biophysics
University of Washington School of Medicine
Lasker Basic Medical Research Award 1999
"Rapid Signaling Mechanisms in the Neuroendocrine Control of the Pituitary"

1995 Wylie W. Vale, Ph.D.
Professor, Laboratory Head and Helen McLoraine Chair in Molecular Neurobiology
Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology 
Salk Institute for Biological Studies, CA
"Activin and the Receptor Serine Kinase Superfamily"

1994 Floyd E. Bloom, M.D.
Professor of Molecular & Integrative Neurosciences
Scripps Research Institute
"Neuronal Messengers and Their Messages"

1993 Professor Bert Sakmann
1991 Nobel Prize Recipient in Physiology or Medicine,
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Director, Department of Cell Physiology
Max Planck Institute, Heidelberg
"Quantal and Molecular Components Excitatory of Synaptic Transmission in the Central Nervous System"

1992 David H. Hubel, M.D.
John Enders University Professor of Neurobiology
Harvard University, MA
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1981)
NY Times link
"Eye, Brain and Perception"

1991 A.J. Hudspeth, M.D., Ph.D.
F. M. Kirby Professor
Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience
Rockefeller University, NY
"Initial Events in Hearing and Equilibrium: Transduction Mechanisms of Hair Cells of the Inner Ear"