Alexander Ming Fisher Lecture

Betty Ferrell, RN, PhD, MA, presenter of the 44th Alexander Ming Fisher Lecture, and Dean Katrina Armstrong, April 2023. (Photo/A. Renae)
The Alexander Ming Fisher Memorial Lecture on Death and Dying was established in the early 1970s by E. Douglas Southwick to commemorate the life of Alexander Ming Fisher, MD, a graduate of Columbia University, and institute a yearly lecture series on the topics of death and dying. Since 1974, Alexander Ming Fisher lecturers have explored a wide variety of issues, including family care in terminal illness, death and public policy, the impact of AIDS on the practice of medicine, physician-assisted suicide, Medicare and terminal illness, and genetic engineering and the prolonging of life.
Most Recent Alexander Ming Fisher Lecture
Past Alexander Ming Fisher Lecturers
2023 – Betty Ferrell, RN, PhD, MA, Director and Professor, Division of Nursing Research and Education, Department of Population Sciences, City of Hope
2021 – Monica L. Lypson, MD, MHPE, Rolf H. Scholdager Professor of Medicine at CUMC; Vice Dean for Education, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons
2020 – Tait Shanafelt, MD, Jeanie and Stewart Ritchie Professor of Medicine; Chief Wellness Officer, Stanford Medicine; Associate Dean, Stanford School of Medicine
2019 – Kay Redfield Jamison, PhD, Dalio Professor in Mood Disorders; Professor of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
2018 – Arthur Kleinman, MD, Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University; Professor of Medical Anthropology in Social Medicine and Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
2017 – Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
2015 – Craig Spencer, MD, MPH, Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUIMC; Assistant Professor of Medicine, CUIMC
2014 – Robert D. Truog, MD, Frances Glessner Lee Professor of Medical Ethics, Anesthesia, and Pediatrics and Director of the Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School; Executive Director, Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice; Senior Associate in Critical Care Cedicine, Boston Children's Hospital
2013 – Diane Meier, MD, Vice Chair of Public Policy and Professor, Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute and the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine; Catherine Gaisman Professor of Medical Ethics; Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
2011 – Jimmie C. Holland, MD, Wayne E. Chapman Chair in Psychiatric Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
2010 – Craig Blinderman, MD, Assistant Professor of Palliative Care in Anesthesiology and Medicine, Director of adult Palliative Medicine, CUIMC
2010 – Robert Pardi Jr., Dr. Desiree Pardi's husband, cofounder and COO, Evolvence Capital
2010 – Betty Lim, MD, Assistant Professor, Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Director of the Samuels Palliative Care Project, Jewish Home Lifecare, New York City
2009 – David Rieff, journalist and author
2008 – Brigadier General Loree K. Sutton, MD, Director, Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury
2007 – Thomas H. Murray, PhD, President, The Hastings Center
2006 – Joan Didion, author
2005 – Kathleen M. Foley, MD, Attending Neurologist, Pain and Palliative Care Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Clinical Pharmacology, Cornell University Medical College; Medical Director of the International Palliative Care Initiative, Open Society Institute
2004 – Arthur Caplan, PhD, Director of the Center for Bioethics and the Emanuel and Robert Hart Chair of Bioethics, Department of Medical Ethics, University of Pennsylvania
2003 – James Q. Wilson, PhD, Ronald Reagan Professor of Public Policy, Pepperdine University; James Collins Professor Emeritus of Management and Public Policy, UCLA
2001 – Nancy S. Wexler, MD, Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University
2000 – Neil Gillman, PhD, Aaron Rabinowitz & Simon H. Rifkind Professor of Jewish Philosophy, Jewish Theological Seminary of America
1998 – Joanne Lynn, MD, Director of the Center to Improve the Care of the Dying, Professor of Health Care Science, George Washington University School of Medicine
1997 – Bruce C. Vladeck, PhD, Professor of Health Policy, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
1996 – Daniel Callahan, PhD, Director of International Programs, The Hastings Center
1995 – Sherwin B. Nuland, MD, Clinical Professor of Surgery, Yale University
1994 – George Soros, Founder and Chair, The Soros Foundation
1993 – Christine K. Cassel, MD, FACP, Professor of Medicine and Public Policy Studies, Chief of the Section of General Internal Medicine, University of Chicago Medical Center
1992 – H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Philosophy, Center for Ethics, Medicine, and Public Issues, Baylor College of Medicine
1991 – Kenneth Ryan, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, Brigham and Women's Hospital
1990 – Rabbi Moses Tendler, Rabbi Isaac and Bella Tendler Professor of Medical Ethics, Yeshiva University
1989 – Edwin Cassem, MD, Acting Chair, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital
1988 – Samuel O. Thier, President, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences
1987 – Merle Sande, MD, Professor of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco; Chief of Medical Service, San Francisco General Hospital
1986 – Rev. John Parris, Professor of Social Ethics, Holy Cross College; Adjunct Professor of Medicine, University of Massachusetts
1985 – Ida M. Martinson, RN, PhD, Health Care Nursing, School of Nursing, University of California at San Francisco
1984 – Francis D. Moore, MD, Mosely Professor Emeritus of Surgery, Harvard University
1983 – Robert Jay Lifton, MD, Foundation's Fund Research Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University
1981 – Alexander M. Capron, LLB, Executive Director, President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research
1980 – Raymond S. Duff, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Yale University
1979 – Leon Kass, MD, Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Biology, University of Chicago
1978 – Edwin Shneidman, PhD, Professor of Thanatology, Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California at Los Angeles
1977 – Robert Kastenbaum, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of Massachusetts
1976 – Jeanne Quint Benoliel, RD, DNSc, Professor and Chair, University of Washington School of Nursing
1975 – Colin Murray Parkes, MD, Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, London
1974 – Cicely Saunders, OBE, MRCP, Medical Director, St. Christopher's Hospice, London
Photos from Past Alexander Ming Fisher Lectures
- For CUIMC faculty, staff, and students with a current CUIMC email account, click here to view photo album.
- For non-CUIMC affiliates, please contact cumc_event_office@cumc.columbia.edu to request access.