Wednesday: The Day We Come Together to Be Inspired

Join the Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series As It Enters Its 30th Season

BY THE NIH CATALYST STAFF

Back in 1994, Harold Varmus (external link), still in his first year as NIH director, envisioned a dedicated time each week for NIH colleagues to gather in a lecture hall and hear from remarkable invited speakers about their recent scientific results and breakthroughs, regardless of the discipline.

“We are all slaves to our schedules and creatures of habit, so I am glad to be able to block out Wednesdays at 3 p.m. for the coming academic year to listen to the wonderful people who have agreed to tell us about their latest work,” said Varmus in the September 27, 1994, issue of the NIH Record. “I hope there is a mob scene every week.”

Thirty years on, the NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS (external link)) is NIH’s highest-profile lecture program. WALS is still focused on that goal of providing a forum for staff to come together weekly for inspiration and serendipitous conversation. The time and place have changed, slightly—now 2 p.m. in the Building 10 Lipsett Amphitheater. The spirit remains the same.

Sure, you can watch each week via NIH VideoCast (external link). But consider joining in person for this special anniversary season. There is value in “being there.”

Kicking off this season on September 11 is the Margaret Pittman Lecture (external link) delivered by Eve Marder from Brandeis University (Boston). Winner of the 2016 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, Marder is known for her research on small neuronal networks.

On September 18, Lei Wang from the University of California at San Francisco School of Pharmacy (San Francisco), will discuss his lab’s progress in building proteins in living cells using amino acids with novel properties, all in an effort to understand disease mechanisms and to engineer protein-based therapeutics.

Next, catch Manu Prakash from Stanford University (Stanford, California), who will speak at the close of the Research Festival on September 25. Prakash, a bioengineer, is best known for creating the Foldscope, a 50-cent microscope now used in field studies in the developing world to diagnose infectious diseases. He’s a dazzling speaker with a passion for educating young people.

And all that is just in September. Join us nearly every Wednesday through June in the NIH Clinical Center for an afternoon’s respite from Zoom and Teams featuring innovation, inquiry, inspiration, and interaction!

Put on your walking shoes.
Wear a mask if you choose!
The only thing you stand to lose
Is a hybrid meeting’s worth of snooze! 

— DDIR Nina Schor