Sneak Peek
WALS Launches New Season
The NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS) launches its 2023-2024 season on Sept. 13. Most lectures will be on Wednesdays in person at 2 p.m. ET in Lipsett Amphitheater, Bldg. 10. All will be broadcast via NIH videocast.
Here’s a sneak peek of September events.
In a prelude, the WALS Office will co-sponsor the annual John Daly Lecture on Sept. 6. Guest speaker Dr. Bryan Roth is the Michael Hooker distinguished professor of protein therapeutics and translational proteomics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Roth is recognized for discoveries and inventions in molecular pharmacology, GPCR structure and function and synthetic neurobiology. The lecture is co-sponsored by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
WALS officially begins on Sept. 13 with the William E. Paul Lecture presented by Dr. Diane Mathis of Harvard Medical School. The Mathis lab studies T cell differentiation and tolerance/autoimmunity, translating mechanistic studies on mouse models to normal and diseased humans.
Next up is the annual G. Burroughs Mider Lecture featuring Dr. Dale Sandler, chief of the Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, on Sept. 20, in the heart of NIH Research Festival week.
Rounding out the month on Sept. 27 will be Dr. Heran Darwin, a professor in the department of microbiology at NYU Langone Health. Darwin’s lab seeks to understand how Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, has become arguably the most successful pathogen on Earth.
WALS is NIH’s highest-profile lecture program. Each season includes some of the best-known names in biomedical and behavioral research. The goal is to keep NIH investigators abreast of the latest and most important research in the United States and beyond. All speakers are nominated by the NIH community.
The upcoming season is special as WALS sets the new-normal, post-pandemic environment. Trainee lunches—with speakers and reception after the lecture—are returning. Lunches are limited to 5-6 trainees. Contact the WALS office, if you’re interested in attending a lunch.
See https://oir.nih.gov/wals for the full schedule. For notice of future events, subscribe to the listserv via https://go.nih.gov/LHfuqzV.—Diana Gomez