Andrew Mark Lippard Memorial Lecture
Lecture History
The Annual Andrew Mark Lippard Memorial Lecture was established in 1975 in memory of Professor and Mrs. Stephen J. Lippard’s seven-year-old son, Andrew Mark, who had died of an acute encephalopathy two years previously. The lecture series is co-sponsored by the Andrew Mark Lippard Memorial Fund, the Columbia MD-PhD Program, and the Department of Neurology.
Professor Lippard was a member of the Department of Chemistry at Columbia at the time of his son’s death. Together with his wife, he established this annual lecture series to stimulate studies on the cause and pathogenesis of encephalopathic disease, particularly with respect to viral components. The annual lecture is traditionally given each Autumn, as close as possible to September 29th, the date of Andrew Mark Lippard's death.
The first Lippard Lecturer was Dr. Philip R. Dodge. Subsequent lecturers included prominent virologists (e.g., Richard T. Johnson, Michael B. Oldstone, Thomas C. Merigan). Topics began to vary more widely in 1982, with Leon E. Rosenberg, Robert G. Schulman, and Stanley B. Pruisner. The scope of lecture topics has continued to evolve with the field.
A complete list of Lippard Lecturers is provided on the next slide. Of note, five former Lippard Lecturers have subsequently won the Nobel Prize.
2025 Andrew Mark Lippard Memorial Lecture
Monday, December 8, 2025, at 5:00 pm
Location: Hammer Health Sciences Center, Room 301 (HSC 301), 701 West 168th Street, 3rd Floor
The Neuroscience of Brain Cancers
Michelle Monje Deisseroth, MD, PhD
Robin Chemers Neustein Professor
Milan Gambhir Professor of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology
Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Michelle Monje, MD, PhD, is the Milan Gambhir Professor of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. She received her M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford and completed her residency training in neurology at the Mass General Brigham program and then returned to Stanford for a clinical fellowship in pediatric neuro-oncology. Her research program focuses on the intersection of neuroscience, immunology and brain cancer biology with an emphasis on neuron-glial interactions in health and oncological disease. Her laboratory studies how neuronal activity regulates healthy glial precursor cell proliferation, new oligodendrocyte generation, and adaptive myelination; this plasticity of myelin contributes to healthy cognitive function, while disruption of myelin plasticity contributes to cognitive impairment in disease states like cancer therapy-related cognitive impairment. Her lab discovered that neuronal activity similarly promotes the progression of malignant gliomas, driving glioma growth through both paracrine factors and through electrophysiologically functional neuron-to-glioma synapses. Dr. Monje’s work has been recognized with numerous honors, including an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, the 2023 Paul Marks Prize, the 2023 Richard Lounsbery Award, the 2024 Ross Prize in Molecular Medicine, the 2025 Prize in Translational Neuroscience from the Max Planck Society, the 2025 Brain Prize and election to the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine.
The Lippard Lectures: A Legacy in Neuroscience
For nearly four decades, the Andrew Mark Lippard Memorial Lecture Series has brought experts from across the field of neuroscience to Columbia University Irving Medical Center to share and discuss the latest cutting-edge research. The list of past distinguished Lippard lecturers is a testament to Columbia's position at the forefront of new ideas and approaches to neurology.
Supporting the Lippard Lectures
The Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons Department of Neurology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center remains a world leader in neurological research, patient care, and education thanks to the generous support of its friends and partners. If you would like to make a gift to support the Annual Andrew Mark Lippard Memorial Lecture Series, please visit our online giving page.
Selection Committee
Each year the featured Lippard lecturer is chosen by an interdisciplinary committee comprised of research leaders from across the medical center. Current committee members include:
- Elizabeth Bradshaw, PhD
- Mr. Alexander Lippard
- Joshua Lippard, Esq.
- Stephen Lippard, PhD (ex officio)
- Richard Mayeux, MD, MSc
- George Mentis, PhD
- Serge Przedborski, MD, PhD (Chair)
- Steven Reiner, MD
- Jonathan Rosand, MD
- Peter St George-Hyslop, OC, FRS, FRSC, FRCPC
- Neil Shneider, MD, PhD
- Robert J. Wechsler-Reya, PhD
For more information, please email Tessa Bouche at thb2108@cumc.columbia.edu.