Mildred Trotter Lecture

The Mildred Trotter lecture invites accomplished women scientists to Washington University School of Medicine to share their work.

Washington University Medical School Alumni Association 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. Nutritionists have profited from her research on developmental variation in the mineral content of bone. Her earlier work focused on factors influencing hair growth.

A founding member of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Dr. Trotter held elected posts in this Association (including the presidency from 1955-1957) and in the American Association of Anatomists. Her awards include the Viking Fund Medal in Physical Anthropology (1956), the Globe Democrat Award for Women of Achievement in Science (1955) and Honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Western College for Women (1956), Mount Holyoke College (1960), and Washington University (1980).

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 1985 Taung Diamond Jubilee International Symposium in South Africa to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the first australopithecine fossil. While in attendance at this meeting, she suffered a debilitating stroke. Dr. Trotter passed away on August 23, 1991.

Mildred Trotter Lecture speakers

Dr. Catherine Dulac Samuel W Morris University Professor and HHMI Investigator Harvard University Neurobiology of Social and Sickness Behaviors	2024
Dr. Rachel Wilson Joseph B. Martin Professor of Basic Research in the Field of Neurobiology Harvard Medical School Neural Networks for Navigation	2023
Dr. Beth Stevens Associate Professor Department of Neurology Children’s Hospital Boston Mapping Microglia States to Function in Alzheimer’s Disease	2022
Dr. Leah Krubitzer Professor of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience University of California, Davis Combinatorial Creatures:  Cortical Plasticity Within and Across Lifetimes	2021
Dr. Amita Sehgal John Herr Musser Professor, Department of Neuroscience Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Interactions of Circadian Rhythms and Sleep with Basic Physiology	2020
Dr. Dora Angelaki Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Tandon School of Engineering New York University A Gravity-Based Three-Dimensional Compass in the Mouse Brain	2019
Dr. Constance Cepko Bullard Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience Harvard Medical School Strategies to Preserve Vision and Nanobodies as Regulators of Intracelluar Biological Activities	2018
Dr. Shirley Tilghman Professor of Molecular Biology & President Emerita Princeton University The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: Life in Biomedical Science	2016
Dr. Nancy Kanwisher Walter A. Rosenblith Professor, Investigator, McGovern Institute for Brain Research Massachusetts Institutes of Technology Menagerie of Mind: Domain Specific and Domain General Components	2013
Dr. Silvia Arber Professor of Neurobiology, Biozentrum University of Basel Senior Group Leader, Friedrich Miescher Institute  for Biomedical Research Precision and Function of Neuronal Circuits Controlling Motor Behavior	2011
Dr. Cori Bargmann Torsten N. Wiesel Professor, Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior The Rockefeller University Genes, Neurons, and Dynamics: Building Flexible Behaviors with a Fixed Wiring Diagram	2010
Dr. Ann Graybiel Institute Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Investigator, McGovern Institute for Brain Research Massachusetts Institute of Technology Our Habitual Lives: How the Brain Makes and Breaks Habits	2009
Dr. Eve Marder Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor  of Neuroscience, Volen Center for Complex Systems Brandeis University Variability, Compensation, and Homeostasis in Neuronal Networks	2007
Dr. Paula Tallal Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Rutgers University Language Development and Disorders: From Research to Remediation	2006
Dr. Gwen Jacobs Cell Biology & Neuroscience Montana State University Creating a View of the Sensory World: How Interneurons Interpret and Encode Sensory Signals from the Environment	2005
Dr. Susan Lindquist Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research Massachusetts Institute of Technology Prions: One Surprise After Another	2004
Dr. Linda Buck Full Member, Division of Basic Sciences Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Deconstructing Smell	2002
Dr. Leslie Ungerleider Chief, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition National Institute of Mental Health Neural Mechanisms of Visual Attention in the Human Cortex	2001
Dr. Janet Rossant Professor and Joint Head, Program in Development and Fetal Health Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto Signalling Pathways in the Early Mouse Embryo	2000
Dr. Ursula Bellugi Professor, Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience Salk Institute for Biological Studies Linking Cognition, Brain and Gene: Clues from Genetically-Based Syndromes	1998
Dr. Mary Bartlett Bunge Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy and Neurological Surgery, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis University of Miami, School of Medicine What Combinations of Cells and Factors Will Best Promote Axonal Regeneration in the Injured Mammalian Spinal Cord?	1997
Dr. Jane E. Buikstra Professor of Anthropology University of New Mexico The Chiribaya Mummies: Human Biology Meets Political Economy	1996
Dr. Helen Blau Professor of Molecular Pharmacology Stanford University School of Medicine Control of Muscle Differentiation: Riboregulators and Gene Therapy	1995
Dr. Anne Young Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurobiology Harvard Medical School Huntington’s Disease: Genetics, Pathophysiology and Therapeutic Strategies	1994
Dr. Mary Lou Oster-Granite Professor of Biomedical Sciences University of California, Riverside Recent Studies of Gene Expression in Normal, Trisomic, and Transgenic Mice	1993
Dr. Carla J. Shatz Professor of Neurobiology Stanford University School of Medicine Neural Activity in Visual System Development	1991
Dr. Nancy Wexler Associate Professor of Clinical Neurophyschology College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Huntington’s Disease: Characterization of the Venezuelan Pedigree	1990
Dr. Lily Yeh Jan Professor of Physiology & Biochemistry University of California, San Francisco Molecular Studies of Voltage Sensitive Potassium Channels	1989
Dr. Lee N. Robins Professor, Department of Psychiatry Washington University School of Medicine Drink, Drugs, and Bad Behavior: Explaining the Links	1988
Dr. Lynn Landmesser Professor, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology The University of Connecticut Qualitative and Quantitative Matching Between Embryonic Motoneurons and Target Muscles	1987
Dr. Zena Werb Professor of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Laboratory of Radiobiology and Environmental Health School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco The Macrophage as a Secretory Cell	1986
Dr. Dorothea Bennett Professor of Cell Biology & Genetics Sloan‑Kettering Institute for Cancer Research The Control of Differentiation: Embryonic Lethal Genes and Their Organization	1985
Dr. Dorothy T. Krieger Professor of Medicine, Director, Division of Endocrinology Mount Sinai School of Medicine An Overview of Brain Peptides	1984
Dr. Marian Koshland Professor of Bacteriology & Immunology, Department of Bacteriology and Immunology University of California, Berkeley Control of Gene Expression in the B-Cell	1982
Dr. Mary D. Leakey Director Olduvai Gorge Excavations, Tanzania, East Africa The History and Meaning of the Discoveries at Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli	1982
Dr. Marilyn Gist Farquhar Professor of Cell Biology and Pathology Yale University School of Medicine Recent Findings on the Biochemical and Functional Organization of the Glomerular Basement Membrane	1981
Dr. Elizabeth D. Hay Chairman, Department of Anatomy Harvard Medical School Interaction of Epithelial Cell Surface and Extra‑Cellular Matrix During Corneal Development	1980
Dr. Elizabeth E. Neufeld Chief, Section of Human Biochemical Genetics Natl. Inst. of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases, NIH Transport of Lysosomal Enzymes in Fibroblasts	1979
Dr. Rosalyn S. Yalow Distinguished Service Professor Mt. Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York Perspectives in Radioimmunoassay	1977
Dr. Beatrice Mintz The Institute for Cancer Research, Philadelphia, PA Teratocarcinoma Cells as Probes of Differentiation and Malignancy	1976
Dr. Mary E. Avery Thomas Morgan Rotch Professor of Pediatrics Harvard Medical School Pulmonary Surfactant: From Bench to Bedside	1975