NAMED LECTURESHIPS

James M. Akagi Lecture in Microbiology

As a Japanese-American youth during World War II, Jim Akagi spent time living in a U.S. internment camp in Idaho. Following the war, he attended the University of Illinois where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Bacteriology. Jim then came to KU for his Master’s (1955) and PhD (1959) degrees, both in bacteriology, working with David Paretsky. Following his PhD, Jim performed post-doctoral research with Leon Campbell in Microbiology at Western Reserve University School of Medicine (now Case Western Reserve).
     After his post-doctoral training, Jim returned to KU as an Assistant Professor in 1961. He remained on the faculty at KU until his retirement in 1995. He was quickly promoted, and attained the rank of full Professor in 1967. In 1976 he became Chair of the Department of Microbiology. In his latter years with the department, he served as Acting Chair of Microbiology for a couple terms, at the request of the Dean.
     Jim Akagi was a physiologist, biochemist, and enzymologist who studied bacterial enzyme catalytic mechanisms -particularly those enzymes involved in sulfate reduction and the catabolism of aliphatic and aromatic compounds. Much of his work centered on the bacterial genus Desulfovibrio - a Gram negative, sulfate-reducing bacterium whose odor was well known within the department. Jim published numerous papers in the area of bacterial physiology and was considered one of the international experts on the enzymatic reactions of sulfate reduction. He maintained continuous funding for his research throughout his distinguished career, in part due to his high level of research productivity and his important contributions to his research field.
     Jim Akagi was a credit to the Department of Microbiology and the University of Kansas. He is a modest individual, despite his outstanding accomplishments, and has an excellent sense of humor. He now resides in the Seattle, Washington area.

Akagi Lecturers

Year	Name	Institution
2023 Fall	Alex Horswill	University of Colorado Medical Center
2023 Spring	Clinton Jones	Oklahoma State University
2021	Joseph Heitman	Duke University School of Medicine
2019	James Van Etten	University of Nebraska-Lincoln
2018	David (Ted) Hackstadt	Traffic, Cellular Microbiology and Infection and Immunity
2016	Victor DiRita	Michigan State University
2014	Scott Hultgren	Washington University
2011 Spring	Gary Dunny	University of Minnesota
2011 Fall	Jorge Galan	Yale University
2010	Ian Macara	University of Virginia Medical School
2008 Fall	Bonnie Bassler	Princeton University
2008 Spring	Christian Raetz	Duke University

Caryle Bender Carr Lecture in Molecular Biosciences

Caryle Bender Carr was born in Ellsworth Kansas in 1931. She received an undergraduate degree from Emporia State University and her PhD in Biochemistry from KU in 1968. Following her PhD, she pursued a career in medical education, primarily at KU Med, in the area of clinical chemistry and medical technology. She married Dr. Dan Carr and they resided in Overland Park, Kansas for 38 years until they both retired to “the farm” in Leavenworth County, Kansas in 2001. Dan Carr was a Professor of Biochemistry at KUMC prior to his retirement. As a graduate student in Biochemistry at KU, Caryle especially enjoyed the opportunity to hear presentations from and to meet a diversity of scientists through the department’s invited speaker seminar series. Following Caryle’s passing in 2018, Dan Carr established the Caryle Bender Carr Lecture in Molecular Biosciences to honor her memory and support the department’s invited speaker seminar series for current and future members of the department.

Bender Carr Lecturers

Year	Name	Institution
2023	Mark Frey	Univ. of Southern California
2022	Mark Denison	Vanderbilt Univ. Med. Center
2021 Fall	Eva Nogales	UC Berkeley
2021 Spring	Coleen T. Murphy	Princeton University
2019	Janet Richmond	Univ. Illinois at Chicago

John C. Davis Memorial Lecture in Cell Biology

John C. Davis joined the University of Kansas faculty in 1976 after completing a doctorate at Pennsylvania State University and postdoctoral studies at Johns Hopkins. His training was in cell biology and endocrinology and his research interests focused on the behavior, morphogenesis, and hormone stimulation of rat testicular cells in vitro. John was a fine teacher, a creative and energetic researcher, and an inspiration to students and colleagues. In his third year at KU he was diagnosed with malignant melanoma and after a brave struggle over many months, he died in 1979 at the age of 33. His two doctoral students had completed much of their research, and their dissertations were written in association with John’s faculty colleagues. One of John’s students was Larry Erickson, an internationally known researcher with the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company, who is studying the expression of blood-clotting factors in transgenic mice. Larry captured the spirit of John Davis in the “Acknowledgements” section of his dissertation, where he expressed his gratitude to his mentor and said: “His unquenchable enthusiasm for science and life will always be remembered.” John’s friends and colleagues established the John C. Davis Memorial Lecture Series in 1980 as a way to celebrate the fact that he made a difference in our lives.

Davis Lecturers

Year	Name	Institution
2022	Randal Halfmann	Stowers Institute for Medical Research
2019	Paul Wade	NIEHS, NIH
2017	Mary Dasso	NICHD, NIH
2014	Joe Lutkenhaus	University of Kansas Medical Center
2013	Peter A. Jones	University of Southern California
2012	James P. Calvet	University of Kansas Medical Center
2011 Fall	Kent Golic	University of Utah
2011 Spring	Henry Krause	University of Toronto
2009	Leslie Voshall	The Rockefeller University
2008	Tom Blumenthal	University of Colorado
2007	Mohan Gupta	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
2006	Lawrence Dreyfus	University of Missouri-Kansas City
2005	Alan Sher	National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
2004	Eric A. Johnson	University of Wisconsin-Madison
2003	Gerard P. Zambetti	St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
2002	Jerry Jaax and Nancy K. Jaax	Kansas State University
2001	Woodring E. Wright	U.T. Southwestern Medical Center
2000	Frederick W. Alt	Harvard Medical School
1999	Jay C. Dunlap	Dartmouth Medical School
1998	Thomas Kaufmann	Indiana University
1997	Nicholas K. Tonks	Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
1996	Gary Ruvkun	Harvard Medical School
1995	Meg Titus	Duke University Medical School
1994	Mary C. Beckerle	University of Utah
1993	Robert Jensen	Johns Hopkins Medical School
1992	Peter Hollenbeck	Harvard University
1991	Malcolm Steinberg	Princeton University
1987	George B. Witman	Worcester Foundation
1986	David Epel	Stanford University
1985	Julian Davidson	Stanford University
1984	Robert W. Goy	University of Wisconsin
1983	Claude Desjardins	University of Virginia
1982	Edward Eddy	National Institutes of Health
1981	Larry Ewing	Johns Hopkins University

Arthur Atsunobu Hirata Memorial Lecture in Immunology

Dr. Hirata was born in Los Angeles, California. He received his baccalaureate and master's degrees in zoology at Duke University. Dr. Hirata first became interested in immunology during his graduate studies in zoology at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he earned a Ph.D. degree in 1958. His interest matured at the California Institute of Technology where, under the tutelage of Professor Dan H. Campbell, an eminent immunochemist, he carried out postdoctoral research as a National Science Foundation Research Fellow. In 1960 he moved to the National Institutes of Health in Maryland as a Staff Research Immunologist, and in 1965 he became a Research Fellow in Immunology at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago, Illinois. He joined the faculty of the University of Kansas as a Professor of Microbiology in 1973, but returned to Abbott Laboratories in 1975 to become a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Laboratories of Immunology, a position he held until his death.
Dr. Hirata's life-long scientific interest was immunochemistry, especially as it applied to medical diagnostic technologies. In this area alone he published many scholarly papers and received more than twenty patents. He was an active member of more than a dozen professional societies. His devotion to academic science was evident from his participation in the graduate teaching programs at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois Medical School. Moreover, throughout his tenure at Abbott Laboratories he maintained a particularly close and active association with the faculty and students in the Department of Microbiology as an Adjunct Professor of Microbiology at the University of Kansas. This endowed lectureship was established through contributions by Abbott Laboratories and the family, colleagues, and many friends of the late Dr. Arthur A. Hirata.

Hirata Lecturers

Year	Name	Institution
2024	Won Jin Ho	Johns Hopkins University
2011	David Woodland	Trudeau Institute
2008	Thomas Waldmann	National Cancer Institute
2002	Max Cooper	University of Alabama
2001	Richard Lynch	University of Iowa
2000	Steven Kunkel	University of Michigan
1999	Kim Bottomly	Yale University
1997	John Cambier	National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine
1990	Jack Strominger	Harvard University
1988	Elvin A. Kabat	Columbia University

Philip and Marjorie Newmark Award Lecture in Biochemistry

The Newmark Award was initiated to remember Dr. Philip Newmark, a faculty member in the Department of Biochemistry, who, at the age of 42, in the midst of an impressive career, was stricken with a fatal heart attack. Led by Byron Wenger, Paul Kitos, and Dwight Mulford, the Newmark Award was established to recognize outstanding research by a K.U. student and build the biochemistry program. Dr. Newmark received his bachelor's degree from City College of New York and his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, working with Dr. Irving Goodman. He did two post-docs, one at Washington University with Barry Commoner, studying nucleic acids (1950-52) and a second at the University of California, Berkeley, with Dr. Wendell Stanley, studying plant RNA viruses (1952-54). He became an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Kansas in 1954. Here, he began a productive research career investigating the physical and chemical characteristics of plant RNA viruses, especially TMV.
Dr. Marjorie Newmark, Philip's wife, came to K.U. as a Research Associate in 1954, working with Dr. Byron Wenger. She became a Lecturer in 1962, was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1964, and Associate Professor in 1974. During the early part of her career, Marge carried out research on arterial metabolism and atherogenesis, gradually shifting her emphasis to teaching in addition to the sole responsibility of raising their three children. Marge taught a variety of biochemistry courses including introductory biochemistry and a graduate level course in cell regulatory mechanisms. She is probably best remembered for the challenging introductory biochemistry lab course that she designed for our undergraduate and graduate biochemistry majors. She obtained NSF funding for equipment to set up this lab in 1971, teaching it almost every fall until her retirement in 1991. The course was initially well reviewed by the NSF panel, and continues to garner praise from the students who benefited from it. Marge was nominated for the prestigious H.O.P.E. Award. She can also take credit for building the biochemistry graduate program from a mere handful of students to a thriving program of over 40 students during her tenure as Director of Graduate Studies for the Department.

Newmark Lecturers

Year	Name	Institution
2024	Scott Blanchard	St. Judes Children's Research Hospital
2023	Sam Gellam	University of Wisconsin-Madison
2022	Taekjip Ha	Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
2021	J. Andrew McCammon	University of California San Diego
2019	Stephen White	University of California Irvine
2018	Jerry Shay	UT Southwestern Medical Center
2017	Donald M. Engelman	Yale School of Medicine
2016	Charles R. Sanders	Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
2015	Karen Allen	Boston University
2014	Chaitin Khosla	Stanford University
2013	Thomas Meek	GlaxoSmithKline
2012	David Ballou	University of Michigan Medical School
2011	David Eisenberg	UCLA-DOE Inst. For Genomics & Proteomics
2010	Sarah O’Connor	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2008	Kenneth A. Johnson	University of Texas, Austin
2007	Heidi Hamm	Vanderbilt University
2006	Michael F. Summers	University of Maryland Baltimore County
2005	Chang-An Yu	Oklahoma State University
2004	Pamela Björkman	California Institute of Technology
2004	Frank Millett	University of Arkansas
2003	Paul D. Boyer	University of California, Los Angeles
2002	Joan A. Steitz	Yale University
2001	Madeline A. Shea	University of Iowa
2000	Michael G. Rossmann	Purdue University
1999	Reza Ghadiri	Scripps Research Institute
1998	Litsa Kranias	University of Cincinnati
1997	Clare Woodward	University of Minnesota
1996	Ernesto Carafoli	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
1995	Nam-Hai Chua	Rockefeller Institute
1994	Wayne Hubbell	University of California, Los Angeles
1993	Clayton A. Buck	Wistar Institute
1992	Richard E. McCarty	Johns Hopkins University
1991	David D. Thomas	University of Minnesota
1990	Howard K. Schachman	University of California, Berkeley
1989	Eric E. Conn	University of California, Davis
1988	Ernest Hodgson	North Carolina State University
1987	R. David Cole	University of California, Berkeley
1986	Thomas F. Deuel	Washington University
1985	James Travis	University of Georgia
1984	Ralph A. Bradshaw	University of California, Irvine
1983	Anthony Pegg	Pennsylvania State University
1982	John Katzenellenbogen	University of Illinois
1981	Leroy Hood	California Institute of Technology
1980	Aaron J. Shatkin	Roche Institute of Molecular Biology
1979	Mary Ellen Jones	University of North Carolina
1978	Harold Edelhoch	National Institutes of Health
1977	Elizabeth F. Neufeld	National Institutes of Health
1976	Richard E. Dickerson	California Institute of Technology
1975	Nathan Brot	Roche Institute of Molecular Biology
1974	Hector F. DeLuca	University of Wisconsin
1973	David Paretsky	University of Kansas
1972	Arthur B. Pardee	Princeton University
1971	William F. Harrington	Johns Hopkins University
1970	Howard K. Schachman	University of California, Berkeley
1969	Alfred Linker	University of Utah Medical School
1968	William Welch	University of Kansas
1967	Albert Benedict	University of Hawaii
1966	Dexter French	Iowa State University
1965	Morris Soodak	Brandeis University
1964	Irving Goodman	Columbia University