Gay Lecture

George W. Gay Lecture in Medical Ethics

The George W. Gay Lecture is the oldest endowed lectureship at Harvard Medical School, and quite possibly the oldest medical ethics lectureship in the United States. The lectureship was established in 1917 by a $1,000 gift from Dr. George Washington Gay, an 1868 graduate of HMS. Gay gave Harvard the fund to provide an annual income to support lectures “to the advanced, or graduating classes in the Medical School upon Medical Ethics, and upon wise and proper methods of conducting the business of physicians, as relates to fees, collections, investments, etc.” The Gay Lectureship perpetuates his deep concern for the welfare of his patients and his appreciation of the constantly arising social and economic forces that impinge on medical care.

Since its inception, many of the nation's most influential physicians, scientists, researchers, and social observers have given the annual lecture. Past lecturers include Elie Wiesel, Erich Fromm, Felix Frankfurter, Margaret Mead, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Elizabeth Kübler Ross, E.O. Wilson, Joshua Lederberg, Marian Wright Edelman, Paul Krugman, Paul Farmer, and Donald Burwick.

Visit our YouTube playlist for videos of recent lectures. Read details and view photos below:

Accommodation Requests

Harvard Medical School welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please email us in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for Sign Language interpreters and/or Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) providers should be made at least two (2) weeks in advance, if possible. Please note that the university will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability. For campus maps and directions, including an ADA pedestrian access map, please visit this Contact HMS page.

Past George W. Gay Lecturers

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1922 to Present

2024	Effy Vayena, PhD, Professor of Bioethics and Associate Vice President for Digital Transformation and Governance, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
2023	Steven E. Hyman, MD, Core Institute Member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research
2022	Rueben C. Warren, DDS, MPH, DrPH, MDiv, Director of the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care, and Professor of Bioethics at Tuskegee University
2021	Patricia A. King, JD, Professor Emerita of Georgetown Law
2020	Eric Topol, MD, Executive Vice President, Scripps Research Director & Founder, Scripps Research Translational Institute
2019	Danielle Allen, PhD, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics
2018	Kwame Anthony Appiah, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University
2017	Michael Sandel, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government Theory, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
2016	Martha Minow, Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
2015	Amy Gutmann, President, University of Pennsylvania
2014	Cass R. Sunstein, JD, Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard Law School
2013	Dan W. Brock, PhD, Frances Glessner Lee Professor of Medical Ethics, HMS
2012	Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, Former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
2010	Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times op-ed columnist, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner
2009	Paul R. Krugman, PhD, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Princeton University
2008	Harvey V. Fineberg, MD, PhD, President of the Institute of Medicine
2006	Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, Co-Founder, Partners in Health
2005	Jerome P. Kassirer, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Emeritus, New England Journal of Medicine
2004	Howard Gardner, PhD, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
2002	Rashi Fein, PhD, Professor of The Economics of Medicine, Emeritus, HMS
2001	Dame Cicely Saunders, St. Christopher’s Hospice, London
1999	Marian Wright Edelman, Founder and President, The Children’s Defense Fund
1998	Elie Wiesel, Mellon Professor of The Humanities, Boston University
1998	Daniel D. Federman, M.D., Dean for Medical Education, Harvard Medical School
1997	Daniel Callahan, Ph.D., Founder, The Hastings Center
1996	Sissela Bok, Ph.D., Fellow, Harvard Center for Population and Development
1995	Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Ph.D. Chair, Afro-American Studies Dept., Harvard Univ.
1994	Robert Lawrence, M.D., Director, Health Sciences, Rockefeller Foundation
1993	Bernadine Healy, M.D., Director, National Institutes of Health
1992	Larry R. Churchill, Chair, Social Medicine, Univ. N. Carolina School of Med.
1991	Arnold S. Relman, M.D., Prof. of Medicine, HMS; Editor, NEJM
1988	Albert Jonsen, Ph.D., Chair, Medical History and Ethics, Univ. of Washington
1987	Dennis Thompson, Ph.D., Dir. Pgm. in Ethics and Professions, Harvard Univ.
1986	Baroness Mary Warnock, Mistress, Girton College, Cambridge, England
1985	Dr. Julian Tudor Hart, Glyncorrwg Health Center, West Galmorgan, Wales
1984	Uwe E. Reinhardt, Ph.D., Prof. Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton Univ.
1983	Joshua Lederberg, Ph.D., President, The Rockefeller University
1982	The Rev. Robert F. Drinan, SJ, U.S. Congress; Georgetown Univ. Law Ctr.
1981	Arnold S. Relman, M.D., Prof. of Medicine, HMS; Editor, NEJM
1980	Dr. Edward O. Wilson, Professor of Science, Harvard University
1979	Dr. Carleton B. Chapman, President, The Commonwealth Fund
1978	Dr. Kenneth J. Ryan, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Harvard Univ.
1977	Dr. Franz J. Ingelfinger, Editor, New England Journal of Medicine
1976	Dr. Robert J. Lifton, Foundations Fund of Research, Yale University
1973	Dr. Elizabeth Kübler Ross, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Univ. of Chicago
1970	Dr. I Bernard Cohen, Professor of The History of Science, Harvard University
1965	Dr. Paul Freund, Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Harvard University
1963	Dr. Herman Ludwig Blumgart, Prof. of Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard University
1962	Erik Erikson, Prof. of Human Development, Lecturer Psych., Harvard Univ.
1961	Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche, Under Secretary for Special Political Affairs, U.N.
1960	Dr. Margaret Mead, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University
1959	Dr. James Howard Means, Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard University
1958	The Honorable Felix Frankfurter, Associate Justice, US Supreme Court
1957	Dr. Erich Fromm, Professor of Psychoanalysis, National University of Mexico
1956	The Rev. Douglas Horton, Professor of Theology, Harvard University
1955	The Rev. George A. Buttrick, Professor of Christian Morals, Harvard University
1954	Dr. Hugh J. Morgan, Professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt University
1945	Ben Amers Williams, Author
1941	Dr. Charles R. Austrian, Assoc. Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University Dr. David Cheever, Associate Professor of Surgery, Emeritus, Harvard University Dr. T. Grier Miller, Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
1940	Phillips Ketchum, Partner, Herrick, Smith, Donald, Farley & Ketchum
1939	Dr. Eliot Wadsworth, President, Boston Chamber of Commerce Dr. Robert L. DeNormandie, Comm. on Ethics & Discipline, Mass. Med. Soc. Dr. Donald Guthrie, Associate Professor of Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
1938	Henry L. Shattuck, Treasurer, Harvard University Dr. Reginald Fitz, Lecturer on The History of Medicine, Harvard University Dr. Elton Mayo, Professor of Industrial Research, Harvard University
1937	Dr. Lawrence K. Lunt, Psychiatrist (Boston, Massachusetts) Dr. O. H. Perry Pepper, Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
1935	Dr. James B. Herrick, Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, Rush Medical College
1934	Dr. Arthur H. Ruggles, Superintendent, Butler Hospital, Providence, RI Dr. John Homans, Clinical Professor of Surgery, Harvard University Dr. Joseph H. Pratt, Professor of Clinical Medicine, Tufts College
1933	Dr. Robert B. Osgood, Professor Orthopedic Surgery, Harvard University Dr. Elliott P. Joslin, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard University
1932	Dr. Roger I. Lee, Professor of Hygiene, Harvard University
1931	Dr. John M. Birnie, Secretary, New England Medical Society
1930	Dr. Samuel B. Woodward, past President, Massachusetts Medical Society
1927	Dr. Francis Weld Peabody, Professor of Medicine, Harvard University
1926	Dr. George G. Sears, Clinical Prof. of Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard University
1924	Dr. Walter P. Bowers, Managing Editor, Boston Medical and Surgical Journal
1923	Dr. George W. Gay
1922	Dr. John Bapst Blake, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Harvard University