The Mildred Trotter Lecture

The Washington University Medical School Alumni Association has honored Mildred Trotter, PhD, a member of the faculty for more than 55 years, by endowing a lectureship in her name. Dr. Trotter, Professor Emeritus and Lecturer in Anatomy since 1967, was the first woman faculty member to be recognized in this way. To acknowledge her deep concern for the role of women in academic life, the lectureship is used to bring a distinguished woman scientist to the University every year. Dr. Trotter contributed much of what is known today about the influence of age, sex and race on variation in human skeletal mass. Her formulas for estimating stature from long limb bone lengths still are used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and in forensic medicine, and nutritionists have profited from her research on developmental variation in the mineral content of bone. Her earlier work focused on factors influencing hair growth.

Dr. Trotter's engagement with science continued after her retirement. She served as Convener of the Subcommittee on Osteology for the International Anatomical Nomenclature Committee and co-chaired a session on "Human Evolution: The Skeletal Dimension" at the Taung Diamond Jubilee International Symposium in South Africa to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the first australopithecine fossil. It was at this meeting that she suffered a debilitating stroke. Dr. Trotter passed away on August 23, 1991.

Past Trotter Speakers