Established in 1947 to celebrate neuroanatomy and now promotes all of neuroscience.
Pinckney J. Harman Memorial Lectures
For 20 years, Pinckney J. Harman was the first Apical Dendrite of the Cajal Club. "During those nineteen years as Apical Dendrite, Pink was the Cajal Club, holding it together, nurturing it, and helping it to mature (Excerpt from Dr. George Clark)." The Cajal Club used to have an annual banquet with a featured dinner speaker. The Pinckney J. Harman Memorial Lecturer was a continuation of this banquet speaker. Elizabeth C. Crosby was one of the initial banquet speakers, and she gave the first Pinckney J. Harman Memorial Lecture in 1969. In the past 20, this impressive list of speakers has featured several members of the National Academy of Sciences, USA (Drs. Bloom, Gage, Kaas, McEwen, Rakic, Shatz, Swanson, Roberts, Jones and Walsh), one member of the Institute of Medicine (Dr. Rubenstein) and three Nobel Laureates (Drs. Sakmann, Moser and Moser).
Pinckney J. Harman
Professor Pinckney Harman, a notable and active member of the Cajal Club, was renowned for his extensive contributions to the field of Anatomy. An alumnus of Georgetown University, he obtained a B.S. and M.S. in 1934 and 1935 respectively. Between 1934 and 1937, he worked at Georgetown's Department of Biology before joining Yale as a Knight Fellow, earning his Ph.D. in Anatomy in 1941. Harman continued his career at Georgetown before moving to New York University in 1946, progressing from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor. His interests lay heavily in comparative neurology, specifically nuclear masses differences in the primate brain, and he began his exploration into genetic disorders of the neuromuscular apparatus at the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory in Maine. In 1956, he became the Professor of Anatomy and Chairman at Seton Hall College of Medicine, later the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry. Harman received distinguished awards like the John Carroll Award (1959) and the William Gaston Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Education (1964).
Left, Pinckney J. Harman, MD. Image courtesy of The Lillian and Clarence de la Chapelle Medical Archives at NYU.
Previous Awardees:​
1951-52
Lorente de No, 1st Banquet speaker
1952-53
James W Papez, 2nd Banquet speaker
1953-54
J Walter Wilson, 3rd Banquet speaker
1954-55
AT Rasmussen, 4th Banquet speaker
1955-56
Elizabeth C. Crosby, 5th Banquet speaker
1957-58
Ernst & Berta Sharrer, 6th Banquet speakers
1959-60
ST Bok, 7th Banquet speakers
1961-62
E Horne Craigie, 8th Banquet speaker
1963-64
Murray L Barr, 9th Banquet speaker
1965-66
Walle JH Nauta, 10th Banquet speaker
1966-67 RD Lockhart, 11th Banquet speaker
1967-68 Adolf Hopf, 12th banquet speaker
1968-69
Elizabeth C. Crosby, 1st Pinckney J. Harman Lecturer
1969-70
Antonio Villasana
1970-71
JZ Young
1971-72
John Szentagothai
1972-73
Richard L Sidman
1973-74
Rene Couteaux
1974-75
Lennart Heimer
1975-76
Vernon Mountcastle
1976-77
Clement A Fox
1977-78
Eugene Roberts
1978-79
Carl Cotman
1979-80
Fred A Mettler
​
1980-81
HGJM Kuypers
1981-82
Bernice Grafstein
1982-83
Richard P Bunge
1983-84
Harvey Karten
1984-85
Constantino Sotelo
1985-86
Pasko Rakic
1986-87
Thomas A Woolsey
1987-88
Pasquale P Graziadei
1988-89
Edward G Jones
1989-90
Alan Peters
1990-91
Clifford B Saper
1991-92
Henry J Ralston Ill
1992-93
Gary W Van Hoesen
1993-94
Ford F Ebner
1994-95
Nicole M LeDouarin
1995-96 Marcus E. Raichle
1996-97 Jon H. Kaas
1997-98
Ray W. Guillery
1998-99
Bruce S McEwen
1999-00
Floyd E Bloom
2000-01
Fred H Gage
2001-02
Carla J Shatz
2002-03
Oswald Steward
2003-04
Not given
​
2004-05
Mark D'Esposito
2005-06
Bert Sakmann
2006-07
Ranulfo Romo
2007-08
Jonathan Horton
2008-09
Giacomo Rizzolatti
2009-10
Arnold Kriegstein
2010-11
Christopher Walsh
2011-12
Larry Swanson
2012-13
Pasko Rakic
2013-14
John Rubenstein
2014-15
Javier DeFelipe
2015-16
May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser
2016-17
Arturo Alvarez-Buylla
2017-18
Luis de Puelles
2018-19
Jeff Lichtman
2019-20
Linda Richards
2020-2021
Liqun Luo
2021-2022
Paola Arlotta
2022-2023
Tirin Moore
Background image Elizabeth C. Crosby, two time banquet speaker and 1st Pinckney J. Harman Memorial Lecturer. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution, United States.