McClintock Lectures

Women are far less likely to be invited to speak on their research by academic institutes and universities than men; CSHL is no exception. These opportunities are critical for garnering recognition in the scientific community, for establishing collaborations, and for career advancement more generally.

In order to address the lack of women speaker invitations being extended by our own institution, WiSE successfully petitioned the CSHL administration to establish the Barbara McClintock lecture series in 2015. This initiative secures two slots each year (out of ~15 total for CSHL) for WiSE to co-host lectures from rising women stars in academia.

The McClintock Lecture Series honors the legacy of CSHL scientist and Nobel Laureate, Barbara McClintock. McClintock was a brilliant and accomplished scientist who revolutionized the study of genetics and made the groundbreaking discovery of “jumping genes” – now known as transposons. She remains the only woman to have ever received an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Her strength, perseverance, and endless curiosity allowed her to succeed in science at a time when very few women were welcome in the field worldwide.

McClintock Lectures 2023

On January 26, 2023 WiSE invited Dr. Shruti Naik to give a Seminar entitled “Immune-mediated mechanisms of adaptive and maladaptive tissue responses” as part of the CSHL Labwide Seminar Series and WiSE McClintock Lectures Series. Dr. Naik was nominated as a McClintock Lecturer not only to showcase the incredible work of her lab, which spans the fields of immunology, host-microbe interactions, and epithelial cell biology, but also for her commitment to advancing the careers of underrepresented and marginalized groups in STEM. During her visit, Dr. Naik also attended breakfast and lunch with lab trainees.  
 
Dr. Naik received her Bachelor’s degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Maryland, College Park. After graduating, she worked as research assistant at the Naval Medical Research Center studying traumatic injury and autoimmune onset. She then received her Ph.D. in Immunology under the mentorship of Dr. Yasmine Belkaid and in collaboration with Dr. Julie Segre through UPenn and the NIH. During her PhD, Dr. Naik discovered how commensals can educate the immune system to protect against pathogens, which has now opened the door for microbiota-based therapies in skin. Dr. Naik then joined the lab of Dr. Elaine Fuchs at Rockefeller as a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellow for her postdoctoral studies. There she discovered that epithelial stem cells harbor memory of inflammation which consequently can boost their regenerative abilities. Dr. Naik is currently an Assistant Professor in the Dept of Pathology, Dept. of Medicine, and Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU.
 

Past McClintock Lectures:

January 26, 2017

Leslie Vosshall

HHMI Investigator, Professor, Rockefeller University The Vosshall lab studies how complex behaviors are controlled by cues from the environment and modulated by internal physiological state.  Working with Drosophila Melanogaster flies, mosquitoes and human subjects, Dr. Vosshall’s research yielded new knowledge about how sensory stimuli are processed and perceived.To learn more about her research: http://vosshall.rockefeller.edu/…

February 2, 2016

Ann Graybiel

Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT February 2nd, 2016 On February 2, 2016 WiSE hosted Dr. Ann Graybiel as the first McClintock Lecturer! Ann Graybiel studies the basal ganglia, forebrain structures that are profoundly important for normal brain function but are also implicated in Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and addiction. Graybiel’s…

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