Larry L. Ewing Memorial Lecture
Larry L. Ewing joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (formerly the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health) in 1972 as a professor in the Department of Population Dynamics and the first director of the Department’s new Division of Reproductive Biology. His research on Leydig cell structure, function, and regulation, which spanned more than 25 years until his death in 1990, earned him recognition as one of world’s respected scholars on male reproductive physiology.
Born in Valley, Nebraska, Ewing received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Nebraska in 1958, and earned his PhD in reproductive physiology from the University of Illinois in 1962. It was during his doctoral studies that Ewing began his research on the structural and biosynthetic properties of the Leydig cell, the testosterone-producing cell of the testis. After completing his doctorate, Ewing became an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Oklahoma State University, where he expanded his research to the use of testosterone and estradiol, administered by sustained-release Silastic capsules, as a male contraceptive.
Ewing was recruited to the School by W. Henry Mosley, MD, in 1972. His lab developed a method for the isolation of highly purified, steroidogenically active Leydig cells that now is used around the world. The author of approximately 140 major publications, he held a patent on the sustained release of steroids for male contraception. Ewing founded and was later president of the Society for the Study of Reproduction, receiving its Distinguished Service Award, served as editor-in-chief of Biology of Reproduction and was president of the American Society of Andrology.
He served on major committees of the NIH, EPA, FDA, and the National Academy of Sciences. At the School, he was president of the Faculty General Assembly and chair of the Appointments and Promotions Committee, among many other service responsibilities.
2019 - 29th Annual
Robert E. Braun, PhD
Department of Mammalian Genetics
The Jackson Laboratory
"Mammalian Germline Stem Cells"
2018 - 28th Annual
Kenneth Pienta, MD
Department of Urology
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
"Solving complex problems: Utilizing multidisciplinary teams to foster creative tension"
2017 - 27th Annual
Patricia Hunt, PhD
School of Molecular Biosciences and Center for Reproductive Biology
Washington State University
"The environment and the germ cell: a career odyssey"
2016 - 26th Annual
William Wright, PhD
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
"The Spermatogonial Stem Cell Niche in the Fertile and Infertile Testis"
2015 - 25th Annual
David C. Page, MD
Whitehead Institute, MIT
"Chromosomes at war: What super-resolution sequencing has taught us about X and Y"
2014 - 24rd Annual
Allan Spradling, PhD
Carnegie Institution for Science
"The Role of Somatic Genome Instability during Oogenesis"
2013 - 23rd Annual
John Eppig, PhD
The Jackson Laboratory
"Oocytes Under Arrest: A Whodunnit"
2012 - 22nd Annual
Blanche Capel, PhD
Duke University Medical Center
"A Systems View of Mammalian Sex Determination"
2011 - 21st Annual
John R. McCarrey, PhD
University of Texas at San Antonio
"Epigenetic Regulation of Genetic Integrity in Germ Cells and Stem Cells"
2010 - 20th Annual
Haifan Lin, PhD
Yale University School of Medicine
"A Novel Small-RNA Mediated Epigenetic Mechanism Related to Stem Cells"
2009 - 19th Annual
Norman Hecht, PhD
Center for Research on Reproduction and Women's Health
University of Pennsylvania
"Germ cells, transposons, and non-coding RNA's"
2008 - 18th Annual
Vassilios Papadopoulos, DPharm, PhD
The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre
"Cholesterol Transport in Steriodogenic Cells:
Mechanisms and Function in Health and Disease"
2007 - 17th Annual
Barry R. Zirkin, PhD
Division of Reproductive Biology
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
"Testosterone and Leydig Cell Function Through the Lifecycle"
2006 - 16th Annual
Erwin Goldberg, PhD
Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Cell Biology
Northwestern University
"Testis Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH-C4) or One Protein: One Career"
2005 - 15th Annual
Donald J. Tindall, PhD
Professor of Urology and Biochemistry/Molecular Biology
Mayo Medical School
"Survival Signaling Mechanisms in Androgen-Refractory Prostate Cancer Cells"
2004 - 14th Annual
Ronald S. Swerdloff, MD
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
"Hormonal Regulation of Cell Death in the Testis: Implications for Contraceptive Development"
2003 - 13th Annual
R. Michael Roberts
University of Missouri - Columbia
"Sexual Dimorphism During Early Embryonic Development and the Effects of Diet on Sex of Offspring Born"
2002 - 12th Annual
Mary Ann Handel, PhD
University of Tennessee
"Ensuring Gamete Quality with Meiotic Mechanisms"
2001 - 11th Annual
Michael D Griswald, PhD
Washington State University
"Transplantation of Murine Spermatogenic Stem Cells"
2000 - 10th Annual
Steven L. McKnight, PhD
Southwestern Graduate School of Biochemical Sciences
"Transcription, Splicing and Consciousness"
1999 - 9th Annual
Donald S. Coffey, PhD
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
"Organization of DNA and the Cell as a Chemomechanical Computer"
1998 - 8th Annual
William J. Bremner, MD, PhD
University of Washington
"World Population Growth and the Prospects for New Male Contraceptives"
1997 - 7th Annual
Bert W. O'Malley, MD
Baylor College of Medicine
"Steroid Receptors, Coactivators, Enzymes, and Chromosomes: The Genetic Puzzle"
1996 - 6th Annual
David L. Garbers, PhD
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
"The Specific Recognition Molecules of Gametes: Paradigms for Somatic Cell Signaling"
1995 - 5th Annual
C. Wayne Bardin, MD
"The Population Council Would Louis XVI Recognize the Testis as a Clock?"
1994 - 4th Annual
Bernard Robaire, PhD
McGill University
"A Twenty-Year Love Affair with the Epididymis"
1993 - 3rd Annual
Claude Desjardins, PhD
University of Virginia
"The Microcirculation: A Window on Vascular and Steriodogenic Cell Performance in the Testis"
1992 - 2nd Annual
Marie-Claire Orgebin-Crist, PhD
Vanderbilt University
"Sperm Maturation in the Epididymis"
1991 - 1st Annual
Noland L. VanDemark, PhD
University of Illinois
"Breaking the Barriers to Creativity"
For more information about Larry L. Ewing, please visit the Chesney Archives.