HIM / Biotech Alumni Newsletter

Legal scholar gives Hollister Lecture

Lawrence Gostin, J.D., LL.D. (Hon.), an internationally recognized scholar in law and public health, gave the 2002 John Hamilcar Hollister Distinguished Lecture, "When Terrorism Threatens Health: How Far are Limitations on Human Rights Justified?" The Hollister Lecture was held in Pritzker Auditorium of Northwestern Memorial Hospital on October 11, 2002.

Gostin is Professor of Law at Georgetown University; Professor of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University, and the Director of the Center for Law & the Public’s Health at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities (CDC Collaborating Center Promoting Public Health Through Law). He is also the Co-Director of the Georgetown/Johns Hopkins Program on Law and Public Health. Professor Gostin is Faculty Affiliate for the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and the Steering and Executive Committees of the Institute for Health Care Research and Policy of Georgetown. He has led major law reform initiatives for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a consortium of states. In the wake of September 11th, 2001, Gostin led the drafting of the Model Emergency Health Powers Act (MEHPA) for the CDC to combat bioterrorism and other emerging health threats.

The Hollister lecture was established to honor the achievements of John Hamilcar Hollister, AM, MD (1824-1911), who is considered on of the co-founders of Northwestern University Medical School. During the first two decades of the Medical School, Hollister held seven different titles and at one time or another taught all preclinical subjects except chemistry. He retired as professor of medicine in 1895.