What happens when Society of Toxicology Past Presidents are asked to put together a lecture giving historical perspective on their research areas and are placed in front of a camera? SOT gets outstanding presentations that are historically valuable, of interest to toxicologists and the public, and a set of valuable resources that can be used in upper level undergraduate as well as graduate courses. These now are available as the Eminent Toxicologist Lecture Series on the SOT website.
The Education Committee Undergraduate Subcommittee recognized the value of capturing important themes in toxicology research delivered by those who participated in the development of the area. Working with the SOT Historian and SOT leaders, four Past Presidents who have been recognized by receiving the most prestigious SOT Awards were selected to develop the first set of lectures. The bonus was the addition of a talk John Doull presented in 2011.
John Doull Marion Ehrich Curtis Klaassen
Ken Ramos Cheryl Walker
The lectures include the following:
- John Doull—How Toxicology Became an Academic Discipline
- Marion Ehrich—Pesticide Neurotoxicity More or Less
- Curtis Klaassen—How We Adapt to Chemicals
- Ken Ramos—Reprogramming of the Human Genome by Toxic Injury
- Cheryl Walker—Environmental Genomics: The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease
For the last four presentations, the recording and slides are available. The Undergraduate Subcommittee will be developing teaching resources that complement these lectures that will be available for use by other educators. In addition, planning is in progress to add to the collection by recording additional presentations at the March 2016 SOT Annual Meeting.
As chair of the group who coordinated this activity in 2014–2015, I extend thanks to the others who contributed to the development of this important collection, including Leigh Ann Burns Naas, Dori Germolec, Barb Kaplan, and Mindy Reynolds.