2008–2009
2007–2008
2006–2007
2005–2006
2004–2005
2003–2004
2008–2009Carol Robinson, professor of biological chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, England, has used mass spectrometry throughout her career to tackle increasingly complex problems in biology. For her lecture, she chose the title “Reading Between the Spectral Lines,” referring to the jagged lines of data produced by the mass spectrometer. This technology allows scientists to analyze the chemical structure of a sample by determining the precise mass (or size) and charge of particles in it. Robinson has used mass spectrometry to understand the structure and arrangement of molecules, not just to identify their constituent parts.
Luke Whitesell, pediatric oncologist and senior research scientist at the Whitehead Institute, has focused on how the artful folding of proteins in cells may offer clues to more effective, less toxic treatments in cancer chemotherapy. His lecture richly conveyed what he called “the most interesting subject in the world: the drug treatment of cancer.”
Bonnie Bassler, Squibb Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, is one of the world's leading researchers on "quorum sensing"—the ability in bacteria to communicate with one another and synchronize group behavior. In her talk, Bassler painted a picture of these one-celled organisms that contradicts nearly four centuries of scientific wisdom.
Elaine Fuchs, Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor in Mammalian Cell Biology and Development at the Rockefeller University and Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, showed in her talk that our most superficial organ can yield profound insights into human biology. Fuchs focuses on the skin's stem cells, master cells possessing the ability to grow into different cell types, and has tackled fundamental questions in developmental biology.
The 2007–2008 lecture series addressed climate change and the Earth's magnetic field.
Inez Fung, professor of atmospheric sciences and codirector, Berkeley Institute of the Environment, University of California at Berkeley, gave a lecture titled "The Changing Carbon Cycle: How Fast Will Atmospheric CO2 Increase?" She described the disaster she sees in the image of the United States at night from a satellite: "I don't see the lights," she said. "I see fossil-fuel emission." Fung was not optimistic about the changing carbon cycle—the process by which carbon circulates among the atmosphere, oceans, and living organisms. Warming weather and drought have taxed the natural carbon cycle, she said, and the capacity of the earth's landmasses and oceans to store the carbon dioxide generated by human activity is waning.
Christina Ravelo, professor of ocean sciences at the University of California at Santa Cruz, looked to the past for clues to the future of global climate change. Her lecture, titled "Regional Expressions of Global Warmth: Lessons from the Pliocene," was cosponsored by Harvard's Earth and Planetary Sciences Department Colloquium Series. Ravelo studies the early Pliocene warm period, about 4.5 to 3 million years ago, when the average temperature was three degrees warmer than today, sea level was twenty to twenty-five meters higher, and the Greenland ice cap was gone.
Lisa Tauxe, professor of geophysics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, delivered a talk titled "Hunting the Earth’s Magnetic Field." Tauxe is one of the world's leading paleomagnetists, devoted to studying the earth's magnetic field as it existed in the past. She travels the globe investigating the puzzling shifts and reversals in the planet's magnetic field.
2006–2007
The 2006–2007 series investigated the evolving landscape of medicine.
The panel discussion, "Women Surgeons: Cutting New Paths," was comprised of five women surgeons who have provided important contributions to medical research, education, and surgical practice.
Nancy E. Davidson, director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center's Breast Cancer Program, discussed the ways in which new laboratory findings will likely affect breast cancer detection, prevention, and treatment.
Rita Colwell, Distinguished University Professor both at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Maryland at College Park and a senior advisor and honorary chairman of Canon US Life Sciences, Inc., addressed how the interaction of humans with cholera bacteria, plankton, and other environmental factors provide the basis for reasonable predictions about cholera outbreaks and how other climate-driven diseases may prove similarly measurable.
2005–2006
The 2005–2006 lecture series focused on astronomy.
Ray Jayawardhana, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics, University of Toronto, discussed astronomy's latest findings about the origins of planets, brown dwarfs, and our own solar system.
The panel discussion, "The Sky’s Not the Limit: Women in Astronomy," featured five women astronomers who have made important contributions to the academy and industry.
Debra Fischer, associate professor of astronomy, San Francisco State University, reviewed current paradigms for planet formation and early evolution and highlighted key characteristics of detected exoplanets that have helped to test theoretical models.
Elizabeth A. Lada, professor of astronomy, University of Florida, presented what we have learned about the distributions and properties of stellar clusters from recent near-infrared imaging and spectroscopic studies and discussed the implications for understanding the formation and eventual fate of embedded clusters.
2004–2005
In the 2004–2005 lecture series, three prominent biologists discussed the findings of their revolutionary research, thus furthering and challenging our understanding of aging, disease, and symbiosis.
Cynthia Kenyon, Herbert Boyer Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics and director of the Larry L. Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging at the University of California at San Francisco, presented her findings on the hormonal regulation of the aging process, as discovered through her work with roundworms.
Elizabeth H. Blackburn, the Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology at the University of California at San Francisco, explored the role of chromosomes in both cancer and the aging process.
Nancy Moran, Regents Professor in the Department of Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Entomology at the University of Arizona, examined the expanding role of symbiosis research, emphasizing particularly the symbioses between multicellular hosts and microbes.
2003–2004
The 2003–2004 lecture series was devoted to a close examination of randomness and computation.
Avi Wigderson, professor at both the School of Mathematics of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University and the Institute of Computer Science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, focused on the theory of computation and its role in furthering our understanding of randomness, demonstrating how the use of random coin flips can dramatically shorten the computation process.
Shafrira Goldwasser, RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Techonology and professor of mathematical sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, explored the role of randomness in the transformation of cryptography from ancient art to modern science.
