2025 Friday Evening Lectures

2025 Friday Evening Lectures

This page will be updated as more information becomes available.

Whether you’re in Woods Hole or halfway around the world, join us for this venerable MBL lecture series.

Lectures are free and open to the public for in-person and virtual attendance. No registration required for in-person attendance. Doors open at 7:30 PM, lectures start at 8 PM in the Cornelia Clapp Auditorium.

Suggestions for future Friday Evening Lecturers are welcome and may be sent to FEL@mbl.edu.

Holden Thorpe
June 13 - “Staying True to the Indispensable Values of Science”

E.B. Wilson History and Philosophy of Science Lecture
Holden Thorp, Editor-in-Chief, Science

View Thorp Event Info Register for Zoom
Gerald Downes
June 20 - “Zebrafish at the Frontline: Investigating Epilepsy Genes and Cultivating New Science Leaders”

Juneteenth Lecture
Gerald Downes, Associate Professor, College of Natural Sciences, UMASS Amherst

View Downes Event Info Register for Zoom
Phil Newmark
June 27 - “From Planarians to Parasites: Mechanisms Regulating Germ Cells and Developmental Plasticity”

Phil Newmark, Burnell R. Roberts Chair in Regenerative Biology at the Morgridge Institute for Research

This lecture will not be recorded.

View Newmark Event Info Register for Zoom
Mary Lou Guerinot
July 11 - “It’s Elementary: Making Food More Nutritious”

Glassman Lecture
Mary Lou Guerinot, Ronald and Deborah Harris Professor in the Sciences, Department of Biology, Dartmouth College

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Geraldine Seydoux
July 18 - “Physics Meets Biology: How Vinaigrette Informed Our Understanding of Cellular Organization”

Geraldine Seydoux, Sheldon Professor of Medical Discovery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

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Vanessa Ruta
July 25 - "Mechanisms of Adaptive Behavior: From Moments to Millennia"

Forbes Lecture
Vanessa Ruta, Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Professor; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

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Jennifer Morgan
August 1 - “No Ordinary Vampire Fish: Insights from Sea Lampreys on Neuroscience and Human Health”

Jennifer Morgan, MBL Senior Scientist and Director of the Bell Center

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Ethan Bier
August 8 - “The Promise of Gene-Drives and Other Active Genetic Systems”

Porter Lecture
Ethan Bier, Professor of Biology, University of California Davis

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Blanton Tolbert
August 15 - “From Curiosity to Discovery: My Quest for Excellence in RNA Science”

Blanton Tolbert, Jacob Gershon-Cohen Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania

This lecture will not be recorded.

View Tolbert Event Info Register for Zoom