Translational Lectures in Reproductive Science

The Northwestern University Center for Reproductive Science (CRS) sponsors a formal seminar series called the Translational Lectures in Reproductive Science. All of the named lectureships below celebrate current and former CRS faculty members who have contributed significantly to the field of reproductive science. These seminars are open to the broader Northwestern community and the public.

To participate in the program or to suggest a speaker, please contact us.

Erwin Goldberg Lectureship in Male Reproduction

A reproductive biologist, Erwin Goldberg, MD, professor emertius at Northwestern University, has sought to extend basic observations from the lab to the bedside throughout his career. His landmark observation of a unique enzyme (LDH-C4, lactate dehydrogenase) in the testis is a foundation for understanding how sperm are produced. He also cloned and sequenced the LDH-C gene and successfully targeted the disruption of the gene, which results in male infertility. This finding was integral to the understating of sperm function and important to diagnosis of male infertility.

Goldberg is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (ASA) and has received the Distinguished Service Award and the Distinguished Andrologist Award from the American Society of Andrology, of which he also served as president. He has been a member of the ASA since it was founded in 1975. He has also received an honorary doctorate of science degree from the State University of New York.

The inaugural lecture took place in October 2017 with Kelly Mayo, PhD, the Walter and Jennie Bayne Professor of Molecular Biosciences at Northwestern University's Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences.

Previous Goldberg Speakers

Name	Affiliation	Date
Michael Griswold, PhD	Washington State University	February 2024
Bernard Robaire, PhD	McGill University	February 2023
Erika L. Matunis, PhD	Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine	February 2022
Thomas O’Halloran, PhD	Michigan State University	February 2021
Saher (Sue) Hammoud, PhD	University of Michigan	February 2020
Barry Zirkin, PhD	Johns Hopkins University - Bloomberg School of Public Health	January 2019
Kelly Mayo, PhD	Northwestern University	October 2017

Neena B. Schwartz Memorial Lectureship in Reproductive Science

The Center for Reproductive Science continues to celebrate the life and work of our founder, Neena B. Schwartz, PhD, since she passed away on April 15, 2018. In 1980, she organized the Program in Reproductive Research and in 1987 became founding director of the Center for Reproductive Science, a peak experience for Schwartz in creating a home for the work that she loved and the faculty and students she recruited. Schwartz trained over 50 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. She was trained as a physiologist, and her laboratory focused on the factors that establish reproductive cycles in mammals. Perhaps most notable was her work on the role of ovarian inhibin in negative feedback regulation of FSH secretion in the female.

In one of her most impactful papers, published in 1977 in PNAS, she and the late Cornelia Channing, a biochemist from the University of Maryland, described the identity of female inhibin (folliculostatin) in follicular fluid. Work prior to their discovery was primarily in the male and this pivotal study opened the entire field of peptide-negative feedback regulation and ushered in the discovery of the larger TGFβ-superfamily of ligands. The impact of her studies was recognized by her election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992, among many other awards and honors.

Schwartz was also a leader. Notably, in 1971 she was an organizer and first president of the American Women in Science. She was also the president of the Society for the Study of Reproduction, president of the Endocrine Society and co-founder of Women in Endocrinology.

Previous Schwartz Speakers

Name	Affiliation	Date
Stephanie Seminara, MD	Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University	December 2023
Patricia Hunt, PhD	Washington State University	October 2022
T. Rajendra Kumar, PhD	University of Colorado - Anschutz Medical Campus	October 2021
Thomas Thompson, PhD	University of Cincinnati - College of Medicine	October 2020
Daniel Bernard, PhD	McGill University, Toronto, Canada	October 2019
Catherine Woolley, PhD	Northwestern University - Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences	October 2018
Janice Evans, PhD	Johns Hopkins University - Bloomberg School of Public Health	January 2018
Jon Levine	University of Wisconsin - Madison	December 2016
Allan Spalding	Carnegie Institute of Washington	April 2014
Kenneth Korach, PhD	Laboratory of Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology, NIEHS/NIH	October 2012
Susan Fisher, PhD	University of California, Los Angeles	April 2012
Francisco DeMayo, PhD	National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences	September 2011
Linda Giudice, MD, PhD	University of California, San Francisco	October 2009
Peter Koopman, PhD	University of Queensland, Australia	January 2008
Blanche Chapel, PhD	Duke University	October 2007
Joanne Richards, PhD	Baylor College of Medicine	2006
J David Pruett, PhD	The University of Georgia and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine	2005
William Crowley, MD	Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital	2004

Danielle Maatouk Memorial Lectureship

Danielle Marie Maatouk, PhD, was an exceptional scientist who studied how changes in the epigenome regulate gene expression and cell fate determination during fetal development. She received her doctorate from the University of Florida in molecular genetics then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the department of biology and genetics at Duke University before working at Northwestern University as an assistant professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

In her own words: “The goal of my lab is to investigate how changes in the epigenome regulate gene expression and cell fate determination during fetal development. Specifically, I will investigate chromatin remodeling during sex determination and uncover regulatory elements that modulate the activity of genes required for ovary and testis formation. I will use this information to aid in the diagnosis of patients with disorders of sexual development, the majority of whom never receive a genetic diagnosis.”

Maatouk passed away on November 13, 2016, at the age of 39, after a two-and-a-half-year battle with aggressive colon cancer. She is survived by her husband, Christopher Futtner, and their two children. She was an innovator, a teacher, a colleague, a friend. Science will miss Danielle Maatouk – but her legacy lives on in all of us in the department, her students and in the next generation of learners who will reveal the fundamentals of sex.

Donations continue to be accepted for this lectureship; make a donation in Maatouk's name.

Previous Maatouk Speakers

Name	Affiliation	Date
Blanche Capel, PhD	Duke University	April 2024
Humphrey Yao, PhD	NIEHS	September 2023
Tony De Falco, PhD	Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center	April 2022
Joan Jorgensen, PhD, DVM	University of Wisconsin – Madison	April 2021
Peter Koopman, PhD	University of Queensland; Brisbane, Australia	April 2019
Robin Lovell-Badge, PhD	The Francis Crick Institute; London, UK	April 2018

All Previous Translational Lecture Speakers

Name	Affiliation	Date
Blanche Capel, PhD	Duke University	April 2024
Michael Griswold, PhD	Washington State University	February 2024
Kara McKinley, PhD	Harvard University	January 2024
Stephanie Seminara, MD	Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University	December 2023
Humphrey Yao, PhD	NIEHS	September 2023
Bernard Robaire, PhD	McGill University	February 2023
Diana Monsivais, PhD	Baylor University	January 2023
Patricia Hunt, PhD	Washington State University	October 2022
Tony De Falco, PhD	Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center	April 2022
Erika L. Matunis, PhD	Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine	February 2022
Debabrata Chakravarti, PhD	Northwestern University	January 2022
T. Rajendra Kumar, PhD	University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus	October 2021
Pierre Comizzoli, PhD, DVM	Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park	August 2021
Joan Jorgensen, PhD, DVM	University of Wisconsin-Madison	April 2021
Thomas O'Halloran, PhD	Michigan State University	February 2021
Tom Thompson, PhD	University of Cincinnati College of Medicine	October 2020
Saher (Sue) Hammoud, PhD	University of Michigan	February 2020
Melissa Simon, MD, MPH	Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine	December 2019
Daniel Bernard, PhD	McGill University, Toronto, Canada	October 2019
Peter Koopman, PhD	University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia	April 2019
Barry Zirkin, PhD	Johns Hopkins University - Bloomberg School of Public Health	January 2019
Sadie Wignall, PhD	Northwestern University Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences	December 2018
Catherine Woolley, PhD	Northwestern University, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences	October 2018
Joanne McAndrews, PhD	Self-employed, American Medical Writers Association	October 2018
Serdar Bulun, MD	Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine	May 2018
Robin Lovell-Badge, PhD	The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK	April 2018
Mariana Wolfner, PhD	Cornell University	March 2018
Thomas Hope, PhD	Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering and Feinberg School of Medicine	February 2018
Janice Evans, PhD*	Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health	January 2018
Jennifer Gerton, PhD	Stowers Institute for Medical Research, and The University of Kansas School of Medicine	January 2018
William Grobman, MD, MBA	Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine	November 2017
Kelly Mayo, PhD	Northwestern University Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences	October 2017
Gail Prins, PhD	University of Illinois at Chicago	May 2017
Susan Klock, PhD	Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine	April 2017
Milan Bagchi, PhD	University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign	March 2017
Daniela Matei, MD	Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine	February 2017
Jon Levine, PhD*	University of Wisconsin-Madison	December 2016
Shannon Kelleher, PhD	Penn State Hershey College of Medicine	February 2015
David Soybel, MD	Penn State Hershey College of Medicine	February 2015
Richard Stouffer, PhD*	Oregon Health & Science University	January 2015
William Grobman, MD, MBA	Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine	December 2014
Joan Jorgensen, PhS	University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine	November 2014
Steve Hammes, MD, PhD	University of Rochester	May 2014
Allan Spradling, PhD*	Carnegie Institution of Washington	April 2014
Tracy Bale, PhD	University of Pennsylvania	March 2014
Jose Teixeira, PhD	Michigan State University	February 2014
Joao Ramalho-Santos, PhD	University of Coimbra, Portugal	January 2014
George Saade, MD	University of Texas Medical Branch	January 2014
Julie Kim, PhD	Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine	December 2013
Abby Dernburg, PhD	University of California – Berkley	November 2013
Max Costa, PhD	New York University	October 2013
Nao Suzuki, PhD	Nao Suzuki, PhD	September 2013
Mario Ascoli, PhD	University of Iowa	April 2013
Gerald Cunha, PhD	University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine	March 2013
Mary Hunzicker-Dunn, PhD	Washington State University	February 2013
Jock Findlay, AO, PhD, DS	Prince Henry Institute, Clayton VIC, Australia	February 2013
Aleksander Rajkovic, MD, PhD	University of Pittsburgh	January 2013
Takeshi Kurita, PhD	Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine	December 2012
John McLachlan, PhD	Tulane University	November 2012
Kenneth Korach, PhD*	Laboratory of Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology, NIEHS/NIH	October 2012
Hamish Wallace, MD	Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh	September 2012
Hugh Taylor, MD	Yale University School of Medicine	May 2012
Susan Fisher, PhD*	University of California, Los Angeles	April 2012
John Katzenellenbogen, PhD	University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign	February 2012
Benita Katzenellenbogen, PhD	University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign	February 2012
Chris Kuzawa, PhD	Northwestern University Weinberg College of Arts and Science	January 2012
Robert Brannigan, MD	Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine	December 2011
Dolores Lamb, PhD	Baylor College of Medicine, Houston TX	November 2011
Marty Matzuk, MD, PhD	Baylor College of Medicine, Houston TX	October 2011
Amander Clark, PhD	University of California, Los Angeles	September 2011
Francesco DeMayo, PhD*	National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences	2011
Susan Fisher, PhD	University of California, San Francisco	May 2010
Seyon Choe, PhD	Salk Institute	April 2010
Patricia Hunt, PhD	Washington State University	March 2010
Nick Webster, PhD	University of California, San Diego	March 2010
Shahin Rafi, MD	Cornell University	February 2010
Diego Castrillon, MD, PhD	U.T. Southwestern Med. Center	December 2009
S.K. Dey, MD	Vanderbilt University	November 2009
Allan Herbison, PhD	University of Otago-New Zealand	October 2009
Linda Giudice, MD, PhD*	University of California, San Francisco	October 2009
Andrea Gore, PhD	University of Texas – Austin	May 2008
Pam Mellon, PhD	University of California, San Diego	March 2008
Milan Bagchi, PhD	University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign	February 2008
Peter Koopman, PhD*	The University of Queensland, Australia	2008
Jeff Weiss, PhD	Northwestern University	December 2007
Holly Ingraham, PhD	University of California, San Francisco	November 2007
Blanche Capel, PhD*	Duke University	October 2007
Jeff Chang, PhD	University of California, San Diego	September 2007
Joanne Richards, PhD*	Baylor College of Medicine	2006
J. David Puett, PhD*	The University of Georgia and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine	2005
William Crowley Jr., MD*	Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital	2004