Benrubi Lecture
The Isidore I.Benrubi Lecture in the History and Ethics of Public Health is an annual lecture featuring a leader in the field of public health and ethics. The lecture series was established in 2007 by the family of Isidore I. Benrubi, a physician, father, and friend.
Defending Public Health, Science, and Democracy in a Time of Peril
September 16, 2025
Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Dr. Besser was joined in conversation by Dr. Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia Journalism School.
Ending Black-White Health Disparities: The Case for Reparations
October 12, 2022
Speaker: Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH
Commissioner, New York State Department of Health
Hate Speech on Campus and the First Amendment: An American Dilemma
April 17, 2019
Speakers:
Aryeh Neier, Human Rights, Activist, President Emeritus of the Open Society Foundations, and Former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch
Jeremy Waldron, Prolific Scholar, University Professor of New York University School of Law, and previously University Professor int he School of Law at Columbia University
Does Equality Have a Future in America?
October 4, 2017
Speaker: Paul Krugman, PhD
Nobel Prize Winner, Economist, Columnist for The New York Times
Keynote Lecture by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Speaker: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
U.S. Senator from Rhode Island
From AIDS to Ebola: What Have We Learned?
April 8, 2015
Speaker: Laurie Garrett
Senior Fellow for Global Health Council on Foreign Relations
Beyond Wages and Wealth: How Inequity Harms Our Political Institutions, Our Social Fabric, and Our Well-Being
February 26, 2014
Speaker: Joseph Stiglitz, PhD, FBS
Nobel Laureate
University Professor at Columbia University
The Changing Picture of Childbirth in America
November 8, 2012
Speaker: Judith W. Leavitt, PhD
Rupple Bascom and Ruth Bleier Professor Emerita
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Environment and Risk: Thinking With & Thinking About Etiology and Incidence
November 16, 2011
Speaker: Charles E. Rosenberg, PhD
Professor of the History of Science, Emeritus
Ernest E. Monrad Professor in the Social Sciences
Harvard University
OSHA at 40: Rethinking Worker Protection for the 21st Century
November 4, 2010
Speaker: David Michaels, PhD
Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA
Keynote Lecture by Simon Szreter, PhD
November 12, 2009
Speaker: Simon Szreter, PhD
Professor in History and Public Policy in the History Faculty, University of Cambridge
Keynote Lecture by David Nasaw, PhD
April 27, 2009
Speaker: David Nasaw, PhD
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Professor of History, CUNY Graduate Center
Rethinking the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: History and the Creating of Memory
April 2, 2008
Speaker: Susan Reverby, PhD
Marion Butler McLean Professor in the History of Ideas, and Professor of Women's Studies, Wellesley College
Polio: An American Story
April 4, 2007
Speaker: David Oshinsky, PhD
Pulitzer Prize Author of "Polio: An American Story"
