Presidential Lectures

Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan
Chairman of Axilor Ventures
"Presidential Lecture Q and A" (February 2026)

Prof. Ken Ono
STEM Advisor to the Provost and the Marvin Rosenblum Professor of Mathematics at the University of Virginia
"Why Does Ramanujan, The Man Who Knew Infinity, Matter?" (July 2025)

Prof. Jens Nielsen
Professor, Professor of Quantitative Systems Biology, Chalmers University of Technology
CEO, BioInnovation Institute, Denmark
"New insight into cellular metabolism from the use of mathematical models" (May 2025)

Mr. Robert D. Holt
Eminent Scholar and Arthur R. Marshall Jr. Chair in Ecological Studies, University of Florida
"The Value of Long-Term Experiments in Ecology" (February 2025)

Prof. Eiichi Nakamura
Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Tokyo
"Cinematic Chemistry: The Journey of Electron Microscopy from Molecular Movies to Molecular Statistics" (November 2024)

Prof. Lars Hultman
Thin Film Physics, Linköping University, Sweden
CEO Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research 
"Discovery of Goldene: A Single-Atom Layer of Gold" (October 2024)

Prof. Michael Stryker
William Francis Ganong Professor of Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco
"Why our brains are more flexible when we are younger" (October 2024)

Prof. Reiko Kuroda
Distinguished Professor at Chubu University and Professor Emerita at the University of Tokyo
"Left and right in nature. Does it matter?" (October 2024)

Prof. Hiroaki Suga
Chemistry professor at the University of Tokyo
Winner of the 2023 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
"Pseudo-natural peptides, products and neobiologics for therapeutic applications" (November 2023)

Prof. Makoto Fujita
University Distinguished Professor at The University of Tokyo
"Coordination Self-Assembly: From Origins to the Latest Advances" (November 2023)

Prof. Paul Chaikin
Julius and Roslyn Silver Professor of Physics at New York University
"Random to Ordered: From Candies to Monster Space Crystals" (September 2023)

Prof. Sidney Nagel
Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor, The University of Chicago
"Patterns in Nature" (September 2023)

Dr. Wieland Huttner
Founding Director Emeritus and Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany
“A gene that made our brain big” (July 1, 2022)

Prof. Takaaki Kajita
2015 Nobel Laureate in Physics
Director and Professor, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, The University of Tokyo
"Exploring the Universe with Neutrinos and Gravitational Waves" (November 2020)

Dr. Andrew Lobb
Associate Professor at Durham University UK
“The Square Peg Problem” (July 2020)

Dr. Thomas Kornberg
Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco
"Signaling at a Distance: Communicating by Touch for Development and Cancer" (November 2019)
"Cell Signalling with Thomas Kornberg" (December 2019)

Prof. Tadashi Tokieda
Professor, Department of Mathematics, Stanford University
"Toy models" (November 2019)
"Mathematics, Language and Much More with Tadashi Tokieda" (December 2019)

Dr. Lily Peng
Physician-Scientist Lead for Medical Imaging at Google AI Healthcare
"Deep Learning for Medical Imaging" (November 2019)

Dr. Samaya Nissanke
Astrophysicist and Spokesperson of GRAPPA, The Center of Excellence in Gravitation And Astroparticle Physics, University Of Amsterdam, Netherlands
"New perspectives onto the Universe in the multi-messenger astronomy era" (October 2019)
"Binary Neutron Stars with Samaya Nissanke" (November 2019)

Prof. Fred Turek
Charles & Emma Professor of Biology at the Department of Neurobiology, Northwestern University
Director, Center for Sleep & Circadian Biology
"The Molecular Circadian Clock and its impact on Health and Disease" (September 2019)
"Circadian rhythms with Professor Fred Turek" (September 2019)

Prof. Jim Smith
Director of Science at Wellcome; Senior Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute
"Making a Human: Lessons from the First Ten Hours in the Life of a Frog" (August 2019)
"Leadership in science with Sir Jim Smith" (August 2019)

Prof. Pavel Belov
Dean of Physics and Engineering Faculty and Head of Research Center of Nanophotonics and Metamaterials, ITMO University, Russia
"Advancing Nanophotonics for New Optical Technologies" (August 2019)

Prof. Kai Simons
CEO Lipotype GmbH; Director Emeritus, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG)
“Lipid Rafts and Lipidomics for Health and Disease" (May 2019)

Prof. Svante Pääbo
2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Director, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany
"A Neandertal Perspective on Human Origins" (May 2019)

Prof. Johannes Krause
Director, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
"The Genetics History of the Ryukyuans" (April 2019)

Prof. Ben L. Feringa
2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Jacobus van't Hoff Distinguished Professor of Molecular Sciences, University of Groningen, Netherlands
"The Art of Building Small" (March 2019)

Prof. Peter Zoller
Professor of Physics, Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, Austria
"A Quantum Leap in Quantum Information: Building Quantum Computers and Quantum Simulators with Cold Atoms and Ions" (February 2019)

Prof. Shrinivas. R. Kulkarni
George Ellery Hale Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science, California Institute of Technology
"Astronomy on the Cusp: A Subject Driven by Progress in Technology" (February 2019)

Prof. Douglas Soltis & Prof. Pamela Soltis
Douglas Soltis is a Distinguished Professor in the Florida Museum of Natural History and Department of Biology at the University of Florida
Prof. Pamela Soltis is a Distinguished Professor and Curator in the Florida Museum of Natural History and Department of Biology at the University of Florida
"Building, Using, and Teaching The Tree of Life" (January 2019)

Prof. Artur Ekert
Professor of Quantum Physics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, UK
Director of the Centre for Quantum Technologies and Lee Kong Chian Centennial Professor at the National University of Singapore, Singapore
"Is There a Perfect Cipher?" (November 2018)

Prof. Klaus Mullen
Director, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research
"Is the Future Black?" (November 2018)

Dr. Bruce Alberts
Chancellor’s Leadership Chair in Biochemistry & Biophysics for Science & Education, University of California, San Francisco
"Science, Biology and the World's Future" (October 2018)

Prof. Eugene W Meyers
Director, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
"Towards Image-Based Systems Biology" (September 2018)

Prof. Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan
Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University
Professor of Physics and Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
"Origami - Mathematics, Science and Technology" ( August 2018)

Prof. Christiane Nusslein-Volhard
1995 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology
"Animal Beauty: Function and Evolution of Biological Aesthetics" (July 2018)

Dr. Hitoshi Murayama
Director of Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, the University of Tokyo
"The Dark Side of the Universe" (July 2018)