Herbert Memorial Lecture
The Herbert Memorial Story
The Herbert Memorial Lecture is given annually in honor of the Vollum's founding director, Edward Herbert. This event is sponsored by Cell Signaling Technology, which is directed by Michael Comb, a former Herbert graduate student. Each year, an outstanding scientist is invited to engage in discussion and fellowship with Vollum faculty and students, as well as to give an open talk to the university. Invited speakers embody the values of thorough, far-reaching, and elegant scientific investigations, for which Dr. Herbert was well known. They include Nobel Laureates Rod MacKinnon, Phillip Sharp, Erwin Neher, and Richard Axel.
The Vollum Institute has fulfilled its founders' aspirations by becoming a world-class neuroscience research institute that stands today as a testimony to his vision.
Dr. Herbert was posthumously elected to the National Academy of Sciences after his death on February 19, 1987.
Download Dr. Herbert's obituary (124 KB) written by John Adelman for the NAS.
RICHARD TSIEN: 2013 HERBERT MEMORIAL LECTURER
Richard Tsien majored in electrical engineering at MIT before receiving his D.Phil. in biophysics from Oxford University under the guidance of Dennis Noble. He then moved to Yale University as an assistant professor and in 1979 achieved the rank of full professor in the Department of Physiology. Dr. Tsien moved to Stanford University in 1988 and served as founder and chairman of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and the George D. Smith Professor of Molecular and Genetic Medicine. In 2011 Tsien moved to New York University where he is presently the Druckenmiller Professor of Neuroscience, director of the NYU Neuroscience Institute, and chair of the Department of Physiology and Neuroscience.
Tsien has received numerous awards and honors. Among them, he is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of both the National Academy of Arts and Science and the National Academy of Science. Dr. Tsien received the Cole Award for contributions to biophysics. He is a fellow of the Neuroscience Institute and recipient of the Palade Medal and the Axelrod Prize.
Dr. Tsien’s research focuses on centrally important and fundamental questions in neuroscience. In particular his work investigates how electrical activity is transduced into cytoplasmic events and the consequent intracellular, and intercellular, signaling mechanisms. Dr. Tsien has held a longstanding interest in the molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic transmission and has made seminal contributions to our understanding of both presynaptic transmitter release and postsynaptic responses. This also reflects his interest in calcium signaling. His work has elucidated many fundamental consequences of calcium signaling, including the pathways that link patterned activity to calcium influx through specific subtypes of calcium channels and on to changes in gene expression, ‘excitation-transcription coupling’. Dr. Tsien’s work also focuses on information flow through neural circuits in both normal conditions and disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, and autism. A central hallmark of Dr. Tsien’s work is an integrated repertoire of cutting edge techniques that advances the entire neuroscience community. His Herbert Memorial Lecture, “Modulating the Gain of Channels, Cascades, and Circuits,” will encompass many of these topics.
Learn more about Richard Tsien's current research at NYU Langone Medical Center
Past Herbert Memorial Speakers
2013
Modulating the gain of channels, cascades, and circuits
Richard Tsien, Ph.D.
New York University Langone Medical Center
2012
Novel neural messengers of life and death
Solomon H. Snyder, M.D.
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
2011
Information processing and integration of the basal ganglia
Shigetada Nakanishi, M.D., Ph.D.
Osaka Bioscience Institute
2010
The emergence and function of spinal motor circuits
Thomas Jessell, Ph.D.
HHMI, Columbia University Medical Center
2008
Making an Effort to Listen: Mechanical Amplification by Myosin Molecules and Ion Channels in Hair Cells of the Inner Ear
A. James Hudspeth, M.D., Ph.D.
The Rockefeller University
2007
Watching the Brain Compute and Tracing Its Wires: New Methods to Solve Old Riddles
Winfried Denk, Ph.D.
Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research
2006
An Rb/E2F/DP Complex and Chromatin Remodeling Antagonize a Ras Pathway during C. elegans Vulva Development
Robert Horvitz, Ph.D.
HHMI, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2005
Oxygen Sensation: Unconventional Signaling for an Unconventional Sense
Cori Bargmann, Ph.D.
HHMI, The Rockefeller University
2004
The Atomic Basis of Selective Ion Conduction in Potassium Channels
Rod MacKinnon, M.D.
HHMI, The Rockefeller University
2002
RNA Splicing and RNA Interference
Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2001
Ca2+ Signals Controlling Neurotransmitter Release and Short Term Synaptic Plasticity
Erwin Neher, Ph.D.
Max-Planck Institut für Biophysikalische Chemie
2000
The Return of the Human Genome
Sydney Brenner, Ph.D.
Molecular Sciences Institute, Inc.
1999
The Molecular Biology of Smell
Richard Axel, M.D.
HHMI, Columbia University
1998
Potassium Channel Regulation
Lily Jan, Ph.D.
HHMI, University of California, San Francisco
1996
Trimeric G Proteins: Structure and Function
Henry Bourne, M.D.
University of California, San Francisco
1995
ARIA: A Protein that Promotes the Maturation of Synapses
Gerald D. Fischbach, M.D.
Harvard Medical School
1991
New Aspects of Peptide Hormone Biosynthesis
Donald F. Steiner, Ph.D.
HHMI, University of Chicago
