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Presidential Lectures 2026

A weekly series of free colloquia spotlighting groundbreaking research.

Presidential Lectures span four themes: neuroscience and autism science, physics, biology, and mathematics and computer science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are designed to foster discussion and drive discovery within the New York City research community.

Taking Pictures and Making Movies of Supermassive Black Holes

Lecture

October 14, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Shep Doeleman

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Biomolecules Aren’t Rocks: Temperature Sensing and Protein Dynamics

Lecture

October 21, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Sonya Hanson

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Past Events

Energetics of Integrating the Brain and Body

Lecture

October 7, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Li Ye

Hidden Order: The Geometry of Complex Patterns

Lecture

September 23, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Salvatore Torquato

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How, and What, Does AlphaFold Learn About Protein Structure?

Lecture

September 16, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Mohammed AlQuraishi

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When Supermassive Black Holes Get Hungry

Lecture

September 9, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

K.E. Saavik Ford

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Hormone-Responsive Neural Circuits and Why They Matter for Women’s Health

Lecture

May 13, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Holly A. Ingraham

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Randomized Methods for Very Large-Scale Linear Algebra

Lecture

May 6, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Per-Gunnar Martinsson

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It’s Not the Structure, It’s the Context

Lecture

April 29, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Alex de Marco, Ph.D.

Puzzles in the Black Hole Interior: Past, Present and Future

Lecture

April 22, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Netta Engelhardt, Ph.D.

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Why Infections Make Us Sick: Host Defenses of the Brain–Immune Axis

Lecture

April 15, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Zuri Sullivan, Ph.D.

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Randomized Algorithms and Representative Democracy

Lecture

April 8, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Moon Duchin

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Algorithms for Biomolecular Structures at Proteome Scale

Lecture

March 25, 2026

All Day

Speaker

Ellen Zhong, Ph.D.

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The Black Hole Explorer: Tracing an Edge of the Visible Universe

Lecture

March 18, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Alex Lupsasca

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Force Sensing Shapes Physiology and Behavior From Within

Lecture

March 11, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Kara Marshall

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Black Hole Mergers: What Gravitational Waves Reveal About Their Origins

Lecture

March 4, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Vicky Kalogera

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A Cellular Mystery: How Do Many Cell Types Arise From a Single Genome?

Lecture

February 25, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Stephen R. Quake

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Random Geometry and Yang-Mills Gauge Theory

Lecture

February 18, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Scott Sheffield

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The Vagus Nerve: How the Brain Listens to the Body

Lecture

February 11, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Stephen Liberles

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Randomness in Number Theory

Lecture

February 4, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Peter Sarnak

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Searching for Merging Supermassive Black Holes

Lecture

January 21, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Chiara Mingarelli

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