Dean's Lecture Series

The Dean's Lecture Series, Katrina Armstrong, MD

We live in a time of free-flowing exchange of ideas across disciplines, geographic borders, and cultures. The Dean’s Lecture Series at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) was established as a leisurely way to learn about work being performed in other medical, scientific, and academic disciplines.

The lectures, sponsored by the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, are intended to focus on the collaborative nature of our scientific endeavors and to celebrate scholarly exchange among all CUIMC faculty, other Columbia faculty, and the greater scientific and academic medicine community.

Lecture topics are diverse, from fundamental bench research, patient care, and medical education to humanism and death and dying. The lectures honor scientists of world acclaim; for example, nearly half the recipients of our annual Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize have gone on to win the Nobel Prize. The recipient of the Horwitz Prize, one of Columbia’s most prestigious awards, gives well-attended lectures at both the medical center and Morningside campuses. Other lectures honor Columbia benefactors and legends, among them the Heidelberger-Kabat Lecture, which memorializes Columbia’s pioneers in immunology, Michael Heidelberger and Elvin Kabat.

Leading scholars, clinicians, scientists, and thinkers have also lectured at Columbia, and we have been fortunate to honor them for their contributions to their fields. Visiting lecturers have included Bert Vogelstein, Stanley Prusiner, Barbara McClintock, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Fred Friendly, Simon Schama, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Judah Folkman, George Soros, and Arthur Caplan.

The lectures are not intended to be isolated events. They are intended to build lasting scientific curiosity and collaboration well after faculty and students leave the lecture hall. By working together, we increase our opportunities to improve health and prevent disease far beyond our clinics, classrooms, and labs. I invite you to attend any or all of these lectures throughout the academic year.

Alexander Ming Fisher Lecture

Established in the early 1970s, this lecture focuses on the topics of death and dying.
The Alexander Ming Fisher Lecture

Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series

The Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series was founded in 1981 to provide a forum and formal vehicle for interdisciplinary academic exchange in the basic sciences, clinical sciences, and humanities.

Cartwright Lecture

This lecture facilitates the exchange of scientific knowledge, attracting scholars, researchers, and clinicians from the world's top medical, scientific, educational, and policymaking institutions.

David Seegal Alpha Omega Alpha Visiting Professorship Lecture

This professorship was established to honor a distinguished medical scholar and teacher.

Heidelberger-Kabat Lecture

Established in the mid-1950s to honor the work of Dr. Michael Heidelberger and, later, Dr. Elvin Kabat, this lecture serves as a premier forum for new developments and discoveries in immunochemistry.

Innovation in Biological and Medical Sciences Distinguished Lecture

Established in 2013, this lecture highlights creative and exciting work from leaders in science.

Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize Lecture

Since 1967, this prestigious award honors a scientific investigator or group of investigators whose contributions to knowledge in either of these fields are deemed worthy of special recognition.
The 2021 Horwitz Prize Lecture

Samuel Rudin Distinguished Visiting Professorship Lecture

This lecture serves as an important vehicle for the exchange of scientific knowledge among Columbia University, the greater New York City community, and academic institutions around the world.

The Dr. Thomas Q. Morris Symposia on Medical Education

This endowment was established to support an annual symposium to explore the future of medical education and features participants who have promoted quality medical education in significant ways.
Thomas Q. Morris Symposium on Medical Education