Hamburger Lecture
In honor of Viktor Hamburger, a pioneer in studies of brain development.
Save the date!
2025 Viktor Hamburger Lecture
Maria Barna, PhD
Stanford University
Monday, April 14, 2025
4:00 pM
TBA | Danforth Campus
Reception to follow lecture
![](https://neuroscienceresearch.wustl.edu/files/2018/07/maria-barna_profilephoto-2025HamburgerLecture.jpg)
![](https://neuroscienceresearch.wustl.edu/files/2017/11/HamburgerViktor-1b0dkq9.jpg)
Born in a small town in Silesia, Germany, Viktor Hamburger attended the Universities of Breslau, Heidelberg, Munich and Freiburg. At the University of Freiburg, he studied with the renowned biologist, Hans Spemann, Nobel Laureate. Professor Hamburger earned his doctoral degree in zoology (experimental embryology) at the University of Freiburg in 1925. The recipient of a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1932, Professor Hamburger came to the United States to study at the University of Chicago with Dr. Frank R. Lillie.
In 1935 he joined the faculty of Washington University. Dr. Hamburger is known for his pioneering work in experimental embryology, neuroembryology and the study of programmed cell death, and his work on Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) with Rita Levi-Montalcini and Stanley Cohen. During his tenure at this Washington University, he served as Chairman of the Department of Zoology from 1941-1966. Professor Hamburger was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Sigma Xi and Phi Beta Kappa. Though he retired as professor emeritus in 1969, Dr. Hamburger continued his research until the mid-1980s. He passed away in 2001, just a few weeks short of his 101st birthday.
The Annual Viktor Hamburger lecture takes place each spring, and is hosted by the Department of Biology.
Hamburger Lecture archives with speakers dating back to 1979!
2023 | Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado | “Understanding the Sources of Regenerative Capacities in Animals” |
2022 | Joshua Sanes | “Cell Types as Building Blocks of Neural Circuits” |
2021 | Joshua Sanes (postponed) | “Cell Types as Building Blocks of Neural Circuits” |
2020 | Joshua Sanes (cancelled) | “Cell Types as Building Blocks of Neural Circuits” |
2019 | Michael Levine | “Visualization of Transvection in Living Drosophila Embryos” |
2018 | Eve Marder | “Variability, Robustness, and Homeostasis in Neurons and Circuits” |
2017 | Olivier Pourquie | “Segmental Patterning of the Vertebrate Embryo” |
2016 | Martyn Goulding | “From Spemann’s organizer to organized circuits: developmental insights into the functional organization of the spinal cord” |
2015 | Barbara Meyer | “Creating Intimacy: Counting, Tethering, and Repressing Chromosomes during Development” |
2014 | Chris Doe | “Generation of neuronal diversity in Drosophila” |
2013 | Joe Fetcho | “A messy adult hindbrain arises via an orderly developmental ground plan” |
2012 | Ben Barres | “What Do Astrocytes Do?” |
2011 | Pasko Rakic | “Making Maps of the Mind: Molecular Mechanisms of Neuronal Migration” |
2010 | Gerald Rubin | “How Can a Molecular Geneticist Understand the Mind of a Fly?” |
2009 | Sydney Brenner | “The Architecture of Biological Complexity” |
2008 | Janet Rossant | “Stem Cells and Early Development” |
2007 | Denise Duboule | “Engineering Chromosomes to Study Vertebrate Development and Evolution” |
2006 | David McClay | “The Impact of Signal Transduction on Gene Regulatory Networks During Early Development” |
2005 | Marianne Bronner-Fraser | “Formation of the Vertebrate Neural Crest” |
2004 | Eddy De Robertis | “Induction of the Vertebrate Central Nervous System” |
2003 | Irving Weissman | “Biology and Evolution of Stem Cells” |
2002 | Gerd B. Mueller | “Concepts and Experiments in Evolutionary Developmental Biology” |
2001 | Carla Shatz | “Brain waves and immune genes in brain wiring” |
2000 | Viktor Hamburger Centenary Symposium October 20, 2000 | |
1999 | Nicole Le Douarin | “A Novel View of Neurulation in Amniotes” |
1998 | Marc Kirschner | “Conservation and Evolvability. I. The Cellular Bases; II The Developmental Bases” |
1997 | Walter Gehring | “The Genetic Control of Eye Morphogenesis and Evolution” |
1996 | Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard | “The Identification of Genes Controlling Development in Flies and Fishes” |
1995 | Thomas Jessell | “Inductive Signals and the Control of Neural Cell Pattern in Vertebrates” |
1994 | Friedrich Bonhoeffer | “On the Formation of the Topographic Neuronal Connection from Retina to Brain” |
1993 | Lynn Landmesser | “Experimental Embryology–A Tool to Dissect the Molecular Processes Underlying Development” |
1992 | Hans Thoenen | “From NGF to a Gene Family: Old Concepts, New Perspectives” |
1991 | Douglas Melton | “Embryonic Induction and Axis Formation in Amphibia” |
1990 | John B. Gurdon | “Mechanisms of Gene Activation in Early Amphibian Development” |
1989 | Corey Goodman | “Cell Adhesion and Cell Recognition During Neural Development” |
1988 | Maxwell Cowan | “The Refinement of Connections During the Development of the Nervous System” |
1987 | Stanley Cohen | “Epidermal Growth Factor and its Receptor” |
1985 | Hampton Carson | “Evolutionary Process: Galapagos Then, Hawaii Now” |
1984 | Dale Purves | “Recognition and Competition in the Nervous System” |
1983 | Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch | “Regulatory Genes in Development” |
1982 | Howard Schneiderman | “Biotechnology: Social and Scientific Implications” |
1980 | Paul Greengard | “Intracellular Messengers in the Brain” |
1979 | Rita Levi-Montalcini | “The Nerve Growth Factor: 25 Years Later” |