Program Overview

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.

      

David Julius Headshot

Speaker Bio

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 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.

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.

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Frank Sesno headshot

Moderator

Dr. Julius will share his science as part of a moderated discussion with Emmy winning journalist Frank Sesno, Director of Strategic Initiatives at George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs. 

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.