David Seegal Alpha Omega Alpha Visiting Professorship Lecture

David Seegal, MD, served as house staff and faculty in the department of medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons from 1924 to 1964. Dr. Seegal believed the highest priority of a medical school was to train competent physicians. He often quoted William Osler, the inventor of bedside teaching: “I desire no other epitaph… than the statement that I taught medical students in the wards, as I regard this as by far the most useful and important work I have been called upon to do.”


The David Seegal Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Visiting Professorship was established by Dr. Seegal’s grateful former students to honor distinguished and articulate medical scholars and teachers. Their aim was to identify annually an academic leader whose charisma and intellectual rigor recalled the pedagogical style that made encounters with Dr. Seegal unforgettable. During the course of the professorship, they will attend conferences and rounds and give the David Seegal Alpha Omega Alpha Visiting Professorship Lecture at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. This exercise honors both the newly elected members of AOA and one of the medical school’s legendary teachers.


Upcoming AOA Visiting Professorship Lecture

Related Information

Past David Seegal Alpha Omega Alpha Lecturers

2021–22 –Wendy L. Hobson-Rohrer, MD, MSPH, University of Utah Health 

2019–20 – Holly J. Humphrey, MD, Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation (lecture postponed indefintely) 

2018–19 – Katrina Armstrong, MD, MSCE, Harvard Medical School

2017–18 – Nancy Andrews, MD, PhD, Duke University

2016–17 – Terence S. Dermody, MD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

2015–16 – Diane Havlir, MD, University of California, San Francisco

2014–15 – Curt I. Civin, MD, University of Maryland School of Medicine

2013–14 – Myron S. Cohen, MD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2012–13 – Daniel H. Lowenstein, MD, University of California, San Francisco

2011–12 – Lawrence M. Tierney Jr., MD, University of California, San Francisco

2010–11 – David Valle, MD, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine

2009–10 – C. Ronald Kahn, MD, Harvard Medical School

2008–09 – L. D. Britt, MD, Eastern Virginia Medical School

2007–08 – Joseph G. Verbalis, MD, Georgetown University

2006–07 – Helen S. Mayberg, MD, Emory University, School of Medicine

2005–06 – Jeffery S. Flier, MD, Beth Israel Medical Center

2004–05 – Harry Jacobs, MD, University of Minnesota

2003–04 – James E. Lock, MD, Harvard Medical School

2002-03 – Robert C. Moellering, Jr., MD, Harvard Medical School

2001-02 – John W. Griffin, MD, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Photos from past David Seegal Alpha Omega Alpha Lectures

CUIMC Faculty, staff and students with current CUIMC email accounts: you can access the photo album via Microsoft Office 365 OneDrive

⇒ View photo album

For Non-CUIMC affiliates: please email your request to: cumc_event_office@cumc.columbia.edu