Society of Reproductive Investigation (SRI)

2018 President's Distinguished Lecturers

Randy W. Schekman, PhD

Thursday, March 8
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
President's Distinguished Lecture I

Dr. Randy Schekman received his Ph.D in biochemistry from Stanford University and completed two years of post-doctoral training at the University of California, San Diego. Immediately after he joined the faculty of the University of California in Berkeley where he remains as a Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology. Additionally, Dr. Schekman is an Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco and an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Dr. Schekman is a 2013 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the genes and proteins that govern cell membrane trafficking, which has been his focus of research for the past thirty years. His work on cellular trafficking has proven vital to our understanding of why specific diseases occur. Dr. Schekman donated his Nobel Prize money to create an endowment in Basic Cancer Biology at UC Berkeley to honor his mother and sister who both died from cancer.

Some of Dr. Schekman’s other awards and honors include the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, American Society for Microbiology’s Eli Lilly and Company Research Award, the Canada Gairdner International Award, and the Dickinson Prize in Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

Ursula B. Kaiser, MD

Friday, March 9
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
President's Distinguished Lecture II

Dr. Ursula B. Kaiser received her M.D. and post-doctoral training in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology from the University of Toronto Medical School. She then joined the faculty of the Harvard Medical School as well as the staff of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is currently the Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Hypertension at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Additionally, Dr. Kaiser is a clinician focusing on neuroendocrinology and reproductive endocrinology.

Dr. Kaiser’s research is focused on genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the neuroendocrine regulation of reproductive development and function. She is the principal investigator of several National Institutes of Health Grants, including Director of an NIH T32 Training Grant in Academic Endocrinology, to train fellows in endocrine research and Program Director of the NIH K12 Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) program, which helps train junior faculty in women’s health research. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology and former Vice President (Basic Science) of the Endocrine Society. Dr. Kaiser’s awards and honors include the Ernst Oppenheimer Award of the Endocrine Society and the A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award at Harvard Medical School.