Hamburger Lecture

In honor of Viktor Hamburger, a pioneer in studies of brain development.

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”