A New Annual Lecture in the BSD
The Coleman R. Seskind, M.D., Lecture in the Biological Sciences features a visiting lecturer working in any field represented in the Biological Sciences Division (BSD) who is a Nobel Laureate, Lasker Award winner, or other prominent scientist, and who will engage with faculty and students. The lectureship was established in 2021 by a generous gift from Coleman R. Seskind, M.D., a retired private practice physician and alumnus of the College and The Pritzker School of Medicine who previously worked in the Department of Pathology at the University of Chicago.
Past Lectures
The third annual Seskind lecture was held on campus Tuesday, October 22, 2024 at 4:00pm with speaker Richard Henderson FRS FMedSci.
Read feature about the 2024 lecture
About Richard Henderson FRS FMedSci
Dr. Henderson is a structural biologist with an undergraduate degree in physics from Edinburgh University. He worked on the structure and mechanism of chymotrypsin for his Ph.D. with David Blow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB). As a postdoc at Yale, he developed an interest in membrane proteins and worked on voltage-gated sodium channels. After returning to LMB, he worked with Nigel Unwin using electron microscopy to determine the structure of bacteriorhodopsin in two-dimensional crystals, first at low resolution and later at atomic resolution. With Chris Tate, he helped to develop methods for improving the stability and conformational homogeneity of membrane proteins, especially G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). These methods were instrumental in solving the structures of several GPCRs, and he later formed a company to develop drugs targeting them.
Over the last 30 years, Dr. Henderson has focused on single particle electron cryomicroscopy (cryoEM), working to understand technical challenges that need to be solved to make the method reach its full theoretical potential. With colleagues at LMB, he encourages microscope manufacturers to develop an entry-level cryoEM, so that more people will have greater access to the technology to accelerate further developments.
View photos and watch the 2024 lecture below
The Second Annual Coleman R. Seskind, M.D., Lecture was held on campus Tuesday, October 17th, 2023 at 4:30pm, with speaker William G. Kaelin, Jr., M.D.
Read feature about the 2023 lecture
About Dr. William G. Kaelin, Jr.
Dr. Kaelin is the Sidney Farber Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Senior Physician-Scientist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and the 2016 the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Prize. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the American College of Physicians. He previously served on the National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Advisors, the AACR Board of Trustees, and the Institute of Medicine National Cancer Policy Board.
Dr. Kaelin’s research seeks to understand how, mechanistically, mutations affecting tumor-suppressor genes cause cancer. His laboratory is currently focused on studies of the VHL, RB-1, and p53 tumor suppressor genes. His long-term goal is to lay the foundation for new anticancer therapies based on the biochemical functions of such proteins. His work on the VHL protein helped to motivate the eventual successful clinical testing of VEGF inhibitors for the treatment of kidney cancer. Moreover, this line of investigation led to new insights into how cells sense and respond to changes in oxygen, and thus has implications for diseases beyond cancer, such as anemia, myocardial infarction, and stroke.
View photos below
The inaugural Coleman R. Seskind, M.D., Lecture was held on campus Thursday, October 6th, 2022, at 4:00pm, featuring Jack Szostak, PhD, as the inaugural speaker. Dr. Szostak joined the faculty of the University of Chicago as University Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the College in late 2022.
Read feature about the inaugural lecture
About Dr. Jack Szostak
A pioneering scholar of genetics who examines the biochemical origins of life, Jack W. Szostak, PhD, is a University Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009 for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. His early research on telomere structure and function and the role of telomere maintenance in preventing cellular senescence was recognized by the 2006 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.
In the 1990s, Dr. Szostak and his colleagues developed in vitro selection as a tool for the isolation of functional RNA, DNA, and protein molecules from large pools of random sequences. His current research interests are in the laboratory synthesis of self-replicating systems and the origins of life. He will lead a new interdisciplinary program at the University of Chicago called the Origins of Life Initiative, which will seek to understand the earliest processes governing the origin of life on Earth and elsewhere in the universe.
Dr. Szostak received his BS from McGill University in Montreal in 1972, and then conducted his graduate research under the supervision of Professor Ray Wu at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, obtaining his PhD in 1977.
Prior to his move to the University of Chicago, Dr. Szostak was a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, and the Alex Rich Distinguished Investigator in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Szostak is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Jack W. Szostak, PhD
University Professor, Department of Chemistry
Nominate a Speaker
Nominations may be submitted at any point throughout the year.
- Nominations are accepted from members of the UChicago community. The stewardship of the Seskind Lecture is guided by a committee of faculty and students who will prioritize candidates nominated by the BSD community.
- Nominees external to the University of Chicago will be given priority.
- We encourage nominations from the different fields of interest to the BSD. Please nominate speakers whose scientific accomplishments are of exceptional quality, who are highly engaging and interactive, and who inspire you.
- Speakers may be from academia, industry, or other relevant institutions and we encourage you to consider speakers across all demographics. Suggested speakers should have a body of work that has had an unquestionable and measurable impact in their field.
Submit a nomination through the online form linked below. To submit more than one nomination, please submit a separate entry using the web form.
About Coleman R. Seskind, M.D.
Coleman R. Seskind, M.D. ’59, is a retired internist in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Seskind has a long history with the University of Chicago, receiving his AB from the College in 1955, his SB in Anatomy in 1956, and his SM in Pathology and M.D. from the Pritzker School of Medicine (PSOM) in 1959. He previously worked in the University’s Department of Pathology.
Dr. Seskind has dedicated his time and expertise to the University of Chicago Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Association (UChicago MBSAA) and UChicago Medicine in numerous ways, including as a former president and now current life member of the Alumni Council, a life member of the Biological Sciences Division and Pritzker School Medicine Council (BSD-PSOM), a longstanding leader and chair of the 1959 medical school class, and with three decades of volunteerism on the editorial committee of Medicine on the Midway magazine. He is also a member of the College Advisory Council and the Oriental Institute Council.
In addition, Dr. Seskind has been a generous philanthropic supporter for over 50 years and continues to make a significant impact on students and the University of Chicago as a whole. Dr. Seskind received the University of Chicago Alumni Service Award in 2010, and he was the inaugural recipient of the UChicago MBSAA’s Alumni Service Award in 2020.