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Why do we feel pain? Every child asks this when they first experience their own physical fragility. But believe it or not, the sensation of pain actually has an important evolutionary purpose. The experience of pain affects our behavior and helps keep us safe.

Kavli Prize Laureate Dr. David Julius will chat with Emmy-winning journalist Frank Sesno about pain's profound implications for human health and medicine, including his own work on touch receptors and the search for natural non-addictive pain-management solutions.

About the Speaker

David Julius is the Morris Herzstein Chair in Molecular Biology and Medicine and Professor and Chair of Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Julius earned a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. Julius worked as a postdoc in the lab of HHMI Investigator Richard Axel at Columbia University, where his research focused on neuropharmacology and receptor function.

Julius was awarded the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience in 2020 and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2021. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Diablo Regional Arts Association, a nonprofit organization that brings performing arts and education to the California Bay Area. Julius was elected a Trustee of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2021.

Moderator

Frank Sesno serves as the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs, and as the Executive Director of the George Washington University Alliance for a Sustainable Future. The Alliance is a broad pan-university initiative to amplify the university’s teaching, research, convening and impact relating to global challenges around climate change, environmental justice, and sustainability.

Our Partners

This event is co-hosted by Carnegie Science with The Kavli Foundation, the Royal Embassy of Norway, and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

- Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

- Seating in the auditorium is on a first-come, first-served basis.

To view the lecture online via Zoom, register here: Zoom Registration.