Annual Lectures
Each year, the Associates host a lecture in the Historical Library. Past speakers have included Nobel Laureates, writers, professors and Surgeons General who have lectured on a wide variety of topics relating to medicine.
Past Lectures
| Year | Speaker | Talk |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 |
Linda Mayes, MD
Arnold Gesell Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Psychology in the Yale Child Study Center; Chair, Child Study Center
|
"Homecomings: Anchoring Ourselves in Place" |
| 2023 |
Gregg Gonsalves, PhD Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases); Associate (Adjunct) Professor of Law, Yale Law School; Affiliated Faculty, Program in Addiction Medicine; Co-Director, Global Health Justice Partnership; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health |
"We Will Be Citizens: AIDS Activism and Global Health Justice" |
| 2022 |
Serap Aksoy, PhD
Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) at Yale School of Public Health; Affiliated Faculty at Yale Institute for Global Health
|
"Advancing Global Public Health: Building Bridges Across Disciplines and Advocating for Evidence-Based Health Policies" (CC available) |
| 2021 |
Nita Ahuja, MD, MBA, FACS Chair of the Department of Surgery at Yale School of Medicine, Chief of Surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital |
"Epigenetic Health: Rethinking Aging and Cancer" |
| 2020 | Cancelled due to COVID-19 | |
| 2019 |
Akiko Iwasaki, PhD Waldemar von Zedtwitz Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute |
"Learning Immunology From Viruses" |
| 2018 |
Laura Niklason, MD, PhD |
"How Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine is Changing Human Disease" |
| 2017 |
Sten Vermund, MD, PhD Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health; Dean of Public Health; Professor of Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine |
"HIV/AIDS from A(labama) to Z(ambia): Research and response since 1981" |
| 2016 |
Ruslan Medzhitov, PhD David W. Wallace Professor of Immunobiology; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute |
"Immune System in Health and Disease" |
| 2015 |
Unni Karunakara, MD Senior Fellow, Jackson Insitute for Global Affairs; Past International President of Médecins Sans Frontières |
"Humanitarian Duties and Action" |
| 2014 |
James E. Rothman, MD, PhD Nobel Laureate; Fergus F. Wallace Professor of Biomedical Science and Chemistry; Chairman and professor of Cell Biology and Professor of Chemistry, Yale University |
"Bubbles in Living Cells" |
| 2013 |
John Gaddis, PhD Pulitzer Prize Winner; Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History, Yale University |
"Writing George Kennan's Biography" |
| 2012 |
Gaddis Smith, PhD Larnde Professor of History Emeritus, Yale University |
"The Medical School's Close Call: A Crisis in the Middle of the 20th Century" |
| 2011 |
Jonathan Spence, PhD Sterling Professor of History Emeritus, Yale University |
"The Great Might-Have-Been: A Chinese Visitor to Robert Boyle" |
| 2010 |
David W. Blight, PhD Professor of American History, Yale University |
"Slaves No More: Two Recently Discovered Slave Narratives & the Story of Emancipation" |
| 2009 |
Michael J. Donoghue, PhD Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University |
"Charles Darwin, the Tree of Life, and the Future of Biodiversity" |
| 2008 |
James H. Billington, PhD Librarian/Director, Library of Congress |
"Freedom as a Strategy: The Importance of an Ideal" |
| 2007 |
Robert A. Weinberg, PhD Professor of Biology, MIT; Member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research |
"Origin of Human Malignancies" |
| 2006 |
Harvey V. Fineberg, MD, PhD President, Institute of Medicine, National Academies of Science |
"Preparing for Avian Influenza: Lessions from the Swine Flu Affair" |
| 2005 |
Douglas Melton, PhD Thomas Dudly Cabot Professor in the Natural Sciences, Harvard University |
"The Future of Pancreatic Stem Cells and Diabetes" |
| 2004 |
Peter C. Agre, MD Nobel Laureate in Chemistry |
"The Road to Stockholm and Back: Comments on the Journey" |
| 2003 |
Dean Kamen Award winning inventor of many medical advances including Insulin infusion pumps, home renal dialysis units, the Ibot wheelchair, and the Segway Human Transporter; Founder of FIRST foundation |
|
| 2002 |
J. Craig Ventner, PhD Chief Scientist and Chairman of the Board, The Institute for Genomic Research |
"Sequencing the Human Genome" |
| 2001 |
Joshua Lederberg, PhD Nobel Laureate; Emeritus President, Rockefeller University |
"Evolution of Infectious Disease" |
| 2000 |
Dr. Richard Horton Editor-in-chief, The Lancet |
"The Journalization of Science: Treachery versus Trust" |
| 1999 |
David Satcher, MD, PhD United States Surgeon General; United States Assistant Secretary for Health |
|
| 1998 |
John H. Lienhard, MD Anderson Professor, University of Houston; Author and voice of National Public Radio |
"The Engines of Our Ingenuity" |
| 1997 |
Daniel S. Goldin Administrator of NASA |
"NASA and Medicine" |
| 1996 |
Jerome P. Kassirer, MD, MACP Editor, New England Journal of Medicine; Professor of Medicine, Tufts University; Member, Institute of Medicine |
"Tomorrow's Journals: In Ink or in Bytes?" |
| 1995 |
Jaroslav Pelikan, PhD Sterling Professor of History, Yale University |
"Amnesia, An Oppupational Disease of Professionals - and Its Antidote" |
| 1994 |
Arvin Brown Artistic Director, Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven |
"Theatre as Literature" |
| 1993 |
Dr. Holly Atkinson Director of Lifetime Medical Television |
"The Visualization of Medical Knowledge: A Personal and Professional Odyssey from Text to Television" |
| 1992 |
Donald Lamm President, W.W. Norton Publishing Company |
"Capsules, Caplets, and Tablets: How Americans Read Today" |
| 1991 |
Dr. John Brademas President, New York University, Former Congressman |
"Higher Education in the '90s: Prospects and Problems" |
| 1990 |
Donald Kagan, PhD Dean of Yale College |
"Liberal Education" |
| 1989 |
Justice Harry A. Blackmun Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court |
"Medicine and the Constitution" |
| 1988 |
Anatole Broyard Author, Former editor of the New York Times Revew of Books |
"The Pathology of Reading" |
| 1987 |
William F. Buckley Jr. Author, Journalist, TV Commentator |
"The Genesis of a Hero" |
| 1986 |
Peter Gay, PhD Sterling Professor of History, Yale University |
"On Writing a Biography of Freud or Psychoanalyzing the Psychoanalyst" |
| 1985 |
Dean Leon Rosenberg, MD Former dean of Yale School of Medicine, Yale University |
"The Reflections of a Green Dean" |
| 1984 |
Dr. Jeremiah Barondess President of New York Academy of Medicine |
"Cushing and Osler: the Evolution of a Friendship" |
| 1983 |
John Irving Author |
"From Fact to Fiction: the Anatomy of a Story" |
| 1982 |
Dr. Lawrence K. Altman Science Editor, New York Times |
"Medicine and the Press, an Historical Overview" |
| 1981 |
Herman Liebert Librarian Emeritus, Beinecke Library, Yale University |
"Investing in Manuscripts and Rare Books" |
| 1980 |
Dr. William Butterfield Trustee of the Associates |
"Medical Caricatures of Thomas Rowlandson" |
| 1979 |
Dr. Norman Rich, MD, FACS, DMCC, MC Founding chair of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Department of Surgery |
"History of Vascular Surgery" |
| 1978 |
Bern Dibner Curator, Burndy Library |
"Book collecting and its culmination in the Burndy Library" |
| 1972 |
Dr. Martin M. Cummings Director of the National Library of Medicine |
"Problems of Scientific Publications" |
| 1971 |
Dr. Whitfield J. Bell Librarian of the American Philosophical Society |
"The Library of the Pennsylvania Hospital" |
| 1970 |
Dr. Saul Jarcho Editor-in-chief, Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine |
"Some Experiences with Books and Libraries" |
| 1969 |
Dr. George Rosen, PhD Professor of medical history and public health, Yale University |
|
| 1958 |
Dr. Frank B. Rogers Director of the National Library of Medicine |
"Books and Medicine" |
| 1949 | First Meeting of the Associates and Trustees; Unveiling of Harvey Cushing Bronze Bust |