Lectures & Seminars
About Tracy Sonneborn
Aside from a few years at Johns Hopkins University where he received the Ph.D. degree, Tracy Sonneborn spent his entire career at Indiana University. His devotion to the study of Paramecium established him as the world leader in biology and genetics of the Protozoa; indeed it is no exaggeration to say that he founded the modern era of study in these areas. One of his major contributions was in demonstrating that preexisting structures in cells can repeatedly determine the patterns of new structures through many generations. Although recognized as an important exception to Mendelian inheritance and a critical element in prion diseases, the mechanism of structural inheritance in biology is not yet understood. “Whatever the final outcome of studies of these phenomena, he must take his place among the most brilliant and devoted experimentalists in the history of biology and a true giant, like no other, in the field of protozoan research” (John Preer).
With precision, thoroughness, and infectious enthusiasm, Tracy Sonneborn also contributed unstintingly to teaching at Indiana University. In spite of the many attempts to entice him away, he remained loyal to IU, finding here the environment he thought was best. To honor his contributions to science and his outstanding career Tracy Sonneborn’s friends and colleagues initiated the Sonneborn Lectureship in 1981. (For more information on Dr. Sonneborn, read John Preer’s essay and his commentary in Genetics (2006, 172: 1373-1377).
Tracy M. Sonneborn Lecture Series
upcoming lecture | about the lecture series | past lectures
 (Photo courtesy of: Princeton University, Office of Communications) |
Upcoming Speaker
Eric F. Wieschaus
Squibb Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University and the 1995 recipient of the Nobel Prize
April 16, 2013
4pm, Myers Hall 130
"Cellular Mechanics and Cell Shape Change during Drosophila Gastrulation"
About the Lecture Series (top)
Friends of the late Tracy M. Sonneborn established a lectureship in his memory in 1981. Support for this lecture has been provided by the Sonneborn Lecture Fund and the Department of Biology.
Past Sonneborn Lectures (top)
2011
Joseph G. Gall, Staff Member, Department of Embryology, Carneige Instituion for Science. "Transcription During the Lampbrush Chromosome Stage of Oogenesis."
2011
C. David Allis, Tri-Institutional Professor, Joy and Jack Fishman Professor and Head, Laboratory of Chromatin Biology and Epigenetics, The Rockefeller University. "Beyond the Double Helix: Varying the 'Histone Code'."
2010
Tian Xu, Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine. "Forward Genetic Screens In Flies and Mice for Deciphering Biology and Disease"
2009
Terry Orr-Weaver, Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Differential DNA Replication as a Developmental Strategy and Replication Model"
2007
David Baulcombe, Professor of Botany, University of Cambridge, UK. "The Biogenesis and Roles of Small Silencing RNAs"
2006
J. Richard McIntosh, Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado at Boulder. "The Logic of Chromosome Movement"
2005
Cynthia Kenyon, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California San Francisco. "From Worms to Mammals: The Hormonal Control of Life Span"
2003 Sharon Long
2002 Philip Hanawalt
2001 David M. Prescott
2000 Elliot Meyerowitz
1999 John Kilmartin
1998 Jim Forney, Eric Meyer, Meng-Chao Yao and John Preer
1997 Randy W. Schekman
1996 Lucy Shapiro
1995 Gerald M. Rubin
1994 Christine Guthrie
1993 Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
1992 Melvin I. Simon
1991 Elizabeth H. Blackburn
1990 Thomas R. Cech
1989 Ira Herskowitz
1988 Franklin Stahl
1987 David Botstein
1986 Mark Ptashne
1985 David S. Hogness
1984 Gerald R. Fink
1983 Philip Leder
1982 Donald D. Brown
1981 Charles Yanofsky