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Frontiers of Science: Martin Chalfie

Frontiers of Science - Martin Chalfie

Frontiers of Science Lecture Series Presents:

"The Continuing Need for Useless Knowledge"

with Nobel laureate Martin Chalfie

University Professor and former chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University

In 1939, the first director of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, Abraham Flexner, wrote an article in Harper's Magazine titled "The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge." Flexner questioned whether our idea of usefulness had become too narrow for the wide-ranging, unpredictable nature of human curiosity, arguing that real discovery happens when scientists are free to explore without needing to justify usefulness in advance. Several Nobel Prizes have gone to discoveries that emerged sideways from what researchers originally set out to study. Chalfie will argue that "useless knowledge" is as necessary today as ever for improving human health and well-being, and will offer thoughts on how we can create space for the unexpected discoveries that drive future scientific breakthroughs.

Event Details

Tuesday, October 22, 2026 | 7:00 p.m.
Cleone Peterson Eccles Alumni House, University of Utah
155 S Central Campus Dr, Salt Lake City, UT 84112

 

Parking & RSVP

Frontiers of Science is the longest continuously running lecture series at the University of Utah. This event is free to the public and RSVPs are not required, but encouraged, by October 19. Parking for this event is available at the Alumni House Parking lot, Lot 30.

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Frontiers of Science: Martin Chalfie
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About Our Speaker:

Headshot of Martin Chalfie

Martin Chalfie is a University Professor and former chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University. He shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for introducing Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) as a biological marker. Born in Chicago, Chalfie earned his Ph.D. in Physiology from Harvard University in 1977 and conducted postdoctoral research with Sydney Brenner at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, before joining Columbia’s faculty in 1982.

Chalfie's research centers primarily on how different types of nerve cells acquire and maintain their unique characteristics and how sensory cells respond to mechanical signals. Chalfie is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a foreign member of the Royal Society. He is a past president of the Society for Developmental Biology and of the American Society for Cell Biology and a former vice chair of the Board of Trustees of Society for Science.  He currently chairs the Committee on Human Rights of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

 

For more information about Martin, visit his Chalfie Lab bio