DHHS logo                              

National Institutes of Health
Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series
2012–2013

                              NIH logo

The NIH Director's Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series, colloquially known as WALS, is the highest-profile lecture program at the NIH. Lectures occur on most Wednesdays from September through June from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. in Masur Auditorium, Building 10 on the NIH Bethesda campus.

Each season includes some of the biggest names in biomedical and behavioral research. The goal of the WALS is to keep NIH researchers abreast of the latest and most important research in the Unites States and beyond. An added treat is the annual J. Edward Rall Cultural Lecture, which features top authors and other cultural icons. All speakers are nominated by the NIH community.

Join us for another exciting year. Contact WALS and trans-NIH events coordinator Jackie Roberts with any questions or comments. Or, join our listserv (recommended for non-NIH employees who otherwise don't receive meeting announcements).

* Look for an all-new WALS website coming this spring.



September

September 5, 2012
Levi A. Garraway, Harvard Medical School
"Integrative and functional genomic studies of human cancer"

September 12, 2012
The Annual Florence Mahoney Lecture
Thomas A. Rando, Stanford University
"Is aging reversible? Resetting the clock"

September 19, 2012
The Annual Rolla E. Dyer Lecture
Myron S. Cohen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"Working to end the HIV pandemic: Glimmers of hope"

September 26, 2012
No scheduled WALS


October

October 3, 2012
David Chan, California Institute of Technology
"Mitochondria: dynamic organelles critical for human health"

October 10, 2012
No WALS, NIH Research Festival from October 9 to 12

October 17, 2012
No WALS per se, DeWitt Stetten, Jr., 50th Anniversary Symposium at NIH
Natcher Auditorium, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

October 24, 2012
The Annual George Khoury Lecture
Teh Jeang, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
"Nuclear damage and miscounted chromosomes: Human T cell leukemia virus transformation of cells"

October 31, 2012
Jeffrey Esko, University of California at San Diego
"Heparan sulfate: Light at the end of the chain"


November

November 7, 2012
Annual Astute Clinician Lecture
Huda Zoghbi, Baylor College of Medicine
"The value of clinical clues in solving neurogenetic riddles"

November 14, 2012
James Rothman, Yale School of Medicine
"The molecular mechanism of synchronous neurotransmitter release at synapses"

November 21, 2012
No WALS, Thanksgiving break

November 28, 2012
No scheduled WALS


December

December 5, 2012
No WALS, NICHD 50th Anniversary

December 12, 2012
The Annual Margaret Pittman Lecture
Jennifer Grandis, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
"Targeting oncogenic pathways in head and neck cancer"

December 19, 2012
No scheduled WALS

December 26, 2012
No WALS, Christmas break


January

January 2, 2013
No WALS, New Year's break

January 9, 2013
Barry Freedman, Wake Forest University
"Genomic factors impacting health in peoples of African descent"

January 16, 2013
Margaret McFall-Ngai, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"Living in a microbial world: Deciphering the molecular language of partnership"

January 23, 2013
NIH Director's Lecture (first of three)
Carla Shatz, Stanford University
"Circuit tuning during developmental critical periods: immune genes moonlighting in the brain"

January 30, 2013
Eva Nogales, University of California at Berkeley
"Architecture, assembly and dynamics of molecular machines regulating eukaryotic gene transcription"


February

February 6, 2013
Albert-László Barabási, Northeastern University
"Network medicine: From cellular interactions to human diseases"

February 13, 2013
Julie Makani, Wellcome Trust Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer, Muhimbili University, Tanzania; and Visiting Fellow at University of Oxford
"Sickle Cell Disease: What can Africa Contribute?"

February 20, 2013
NIH Director's Lecture (second of three)
Pamela Collins, National Institute of Mental Health
"Global Engagement for Mental Health"

February 27, 2013
The Annual Robert S. Gordon, Jr. Lecture
Mitchell Gail, National Cancer Institute
"Using risk models for breast cancer prevention"


March

March 6, 2013
Donald Ingber, Wyss Institute at Harvard
"Organs on chips and programmable nanotherapeutics"

March 13, 2013
The Annual J. Edward Rall Cultural Lecture
Rita Dove, former U.S. Poet Laureate
lecture title TBA

March 20, 2013
David Sabatini, Whitehead Institute
"Regulation of growth by the mTOR pathway"

March 27, 2013
Fred Alt, Harvard University
"Antibodies, genome stability and cancer"


April

April 3, 2013
Joan Massagué, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
"Deconstructing metastasis: Disseminated cancer cells as targets"

April 10, 2013
NIH Director's Lecture (third of three)
Tom Misteli, National Cancer Institute
"The cell biology of genomes: From fundamentals to disease"

April 15, 2013
Scott W. Lowe, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
"Identifying tumor suppressor and tumor maintenance genes using mouse models and RNA interference"

April 17, 2013
Leona D. Samson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Alkylation, inflammation and DNA repair"

April 24, 2013
Tom Maniatis, Columbia University Medical Center
"The generation and function of single cell diversity in the mammalian brain"


May

May 1, 2013
The Annual Marshall W. Nirenberg Lecture
Jonathan Weissman, University of California at San Francisco
"Globally monitoring translation through ribosome profiling"

May 8, 2013
The Inaugural Robert N. Butler Lecture
Ronald C. Petersen, Mayo Clinic
"Neuroimaging and Biomarkers: How Early Can We Diagnose Alzheimer's?"

May 15, 2013
Erika Matunis, Johns Hopkins University
"Finding your niche: Tales of tissue stem cell biology from the Drosophila testis"

May 22, 2013
Jue Chen, Purdue University
ABC transporters: Nature's favorite pump

May 29, 2013
Katherine A. High, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
"Genetic therapies for genetic disease: Results and lessons from recent successes"


June

June 5, 2013
Keith Yamamoto, University of California at San Francisco
"Combinatoriality, signal integration and allostery: Determinants of specific transcriptional regulation by the glucocorticoid receptor"

June 12, 2013
The Annual G. Burroughs Mider Lecture
Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, National Institute of Child Health and Development
"Navigating the cellular landscape with new optical probes, imaging strategies and technical innovations"

June 19, 2013
Mu-Ming Poo, University of California at Berkeley
"Synaptic modulation by activity and neurotrophins"

June 26, 2013
Jeffrey Gordon, Washington University at St. Louis
"Exploring the human gut microbiome: Dining in with trillions of fascinating friends"


Click to download

WALS poster
Click to download