WALS Schedule

WALS Nomination Form

Instruction for nominating a WALS speaker

Nominations for Wednesday Afternoon Lectures and the NIH Director's Lectures

November is nominations month for the Wednesday Afternoon Lectures, including the NIH Director's Lectures. This is NIH's premier lecture series. The Director's Lectures have brought the leading lights of biomedical research to NIH to present their science for the past 50 years (1952-2002).

Nominations will be due on December 10 for the 2004-2005 lecture year. Any scientist may submit a nomination through his or her scientific interest group, Scientific Director, members of the lectures nominations committee (acotrim@nidcr.nih.gov) or directly to the Office of Intramural Research (hooperC@nih.gov). Fellows should submit their nominations through the NIH Fellows Committee (click here to go to the nomination form) or their interest group.

All nominations must be submitted electronically and include:

• Speaker's name and the lecture for which he or she is being nominated (WALS or Director's Lectures, listed below)
• Speaker's institutional affiliation and professional title
• Speaker's postal and e-mail addresses, and telephone and fax numbers
• One succinct persuasive paragraph in support of the nomination, including seminal discoveries and why the speaker would be of wide interest at NIH. One key reference may be included.
• Nominator's name, e-mail address, and interest group affiliation

  Priority will be given to speakers who have not presented in the WALS series recently, who broaden the diversity of speakers in the series, and who have reputations for being exemplary lecturers. For lists of past WALS speakers, please see: http://www1.od.nih.gov/wals/LectureList.htm

  The Lectures Committee will consider all submitted nominations for Directors Lectures. After that, the interest groups and the Fellows will consolidate their nominations for the Wednesday Afternoon Lectures from the remaining nominees. The Director, NIH, and Deputy Director for Intramural Research will make the final selection of speakers from the slates prepared by the Board of Scientific Directors (for the Director's Lectures) and by the SIGs and Fellows (for the WALs).

  The NIH Director's Lectures

  • Dyer Lecture--Honors Rolla E. Dyer, a former Director of NIH. The award is made to a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to knowledge in a field of medical science, generally infectious disease or immunity.
  • Mider Lecture--Honors the distinguished service of intramural scientist and former Director of Laboratories and Clinics, G. Burroughs Mider. This award is made annually to a scientist who has contributed significantly to the biomedical research eminence of NIH, generally presented to a leading intramural investigator)
  • Pittman Lecture--Honors Margaret Pittman, the first woman to hold the position of Laboratory Chief at NIH. Among her many accomplishments are the discovery of key capsular polysaccharides on Haemophilus influenzae and hypotheses that led to the development of new acellular pertussis vaccines.
  • Cultural Lecture: This lecture emphasizes cultural features of our lives and the world we live and work in, rather than straight presentation of biomedical research data, as predominates in the other Director's lectures.
  • Astute Clinician Lecturer: Recognizes the contribution of astute clinical observation in opening new avenues of research. Please send nominations for the Astute Clinician Lecture to Pat Piringer (ppiringer@mail.cc.nih.gov) for consideration.
  • NIH Director's Lecture: The remaining two or three NIH lectures recognize outstanding accomplishment in biomedical research.

    For a list of speakers who have presented Director's Lectures, please see: http://www1.od.nih.gov/wals/LectureList.htm