Established in 1974, the annual Distinguished Faculty Lecture is dedicated to acknowledging the work of our most esteemed and accomplished faculty members. The lecture series not only honors individual faculty members and their achievements, but also celebrates the values of academic excellence that we share as a community. Each honoree is presented with the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest recognition bestowed upon faculty by the campus.
Reproduction is an essential biological function that ensures the continued existence of species. Besides the beauty of understanding reproductive processes in plants and animals, research in reproduction has social, economic, and clinical consequences. This research can be used both to increase reproductive success and to prevent reproduction through contraceptive methods. In this lecture, the highly respected and widely cited researcher Professor Pablo Visconti will present a historical overview of the science of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and of contraception—including this technology’s close ties to our university. Visconti will then describe how the ongoing study of sperm metabolism has led to advances in both ART and in the development of methods of male contraception. Procedures pioneered in his lab promise to improve the success of in vitro fertilization procedures, while his lab’s novel research targeting specific master regulatory proteins of the testes advances the science of male contraception.