The Richard C. Parker Memorial Lecture
This lecture is part of an annual tribute to Richard Parker, a former Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology.
Richard arrived at Columbia University in 1983 after undergraduate training at MIT, doctoral work at California Institute of Technology, and postdoctoral work at the University of California, San Francisco. He established a laboratory, began independent research on transformation of cells, joined in teaching of the department courses, and started training several doctoral students. All this he began despite having been diagnosed, several years earlier, of having lymphoblastic T-cell lymphoma. Richard spent nearly three years in our department, and he was a brilliant, dedicated, dependable and outspoken colleague. Richard fought his disease for six and one half years, which unfortunately took his life on July 4, 1986.
Richard was especially dedicated to graduate education, and before he died he asked his department chairman, Dr. Lucy Shapiro, to do everything possible to support graduate training at Columbia. As a result, the department established the Richard C. Parker Memorial Fund for graduate training. This fund is used to sponsor, each year, a seminar by an outstanding scientist. The speaker is selected and hosted by the graduate students of the department, and spends the day talking with the students.
In addition, the Richard C. Parker Graduate Student Award was established, which is presented each year to a student who has accomplished outstanding and innovative work. Previous recipients of this award are listed on the following table.
Parker Award Recipients and Memorial Lectures
Year Award Recipient Award Lecturer
1987 Pam Schwartzberg Philip Leder
1988 Cathy Mendelsohn Joan Steitz
1989 Andrea Marra Jonathan King
1990 Xiuxuan Zhu H. Robert Horvitz (2002 Nobel Prize in Medicine)
1991 Nick Cacalano Robert A. Weinberg
1992 Lori Sussel David Livingston
1993 Peter Covitz Edward Harlow
1994 Elaine Sia & Sandra Wells Ronald Levy
1995 Elizabeth Colston Harold Varmus (1989 Nobel Prize in Medicine)
1996 Stephen Buck J. Michael Bishop (1989 Nobel Prize in Medicine)
1997 Erik Lium & Gonzalo Merino Tom Maniatis
1998 Nikka Danial Gerald Fink
1999 Douglas Braaten Anna M. Skalka
2000 Husam Ansari David Botstein
2001 Scott Kachlany Marjorie Oettinger
2002 Oliver Jovanovic J. Craig Venter
2003 Robert Pelham & Paul Planet Jonathan Beckwith
2004 Vincent Bruno & Kristen Johnson Hidde Ploegh
2005 Lance Langston Leonard Guarente
2006 Clarissa Nobile & Nadim Shohdy Lucy Shapiro
2007 Brenda Perez & Erna Magnusdottir Bonnie Bassler
2008 Teresita Arenzana Aaron Mitchell
2009 Eleni Mimitou Anthony Fauci
2010 Allison Fay Susan Gottesman
2011 Kanako Lewis Philippe Sansonetti
2012 Celia Keim & Christal Vitiello C. David Allis
2013 Roy Maute Ruslan Medzhitov
2014 Huan Chen Dan Littman
2015 Naomi Yudanin, Evangelos Pefanis & Jaeyop Lee Craig B. Thompson
2016 Sarah Deng Yasmin Belkaid
2017 Casandra Panea Akiko Iwasaki
2018 Matthew Decker Ira Mellman
2019 Mariana Justino Lage de Almeida & Julyun Oh Kristin Hogquist
2020 Barbara Stokes Elaine Fuchs
2021 Simon Diez & Xiaobin Wang
2022 Yeojin Lee & Sho Iketani Ralph Baric
2023 Thomas Savage E. John Wherry
2024 Tyler Dorrity Ramnik Xavier