This lectureship, with its commemorative medal, was established in 1933 by the Association in recognition of “… the extraordinary time and energy given so fully and enthusiastically by Dr. Gordon Wilson in helping develop the ACCA into a leading society for the advancement of clinical medicine.” The inaugural lecture, entitled “Some Observations on the Course and Outcome of Hemorrhagic Nephritis,” was delivered in 1937 by Dr. Warfield T. Longcope of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Dr. Wilson was a native of Alexandria, Virginia. After receiving a medical degree from the University of Virginia, he traveled to Johns Hopkins as an assistant resident physician in charge of the private pavilions under William Osler. The following year he worked as a resident fellow in pathology under William Henry Welch. In 1902, he entered private practice in Baltimore and was appointed chief of the medical dispensary of the University of Maryland. He advanced steadily within the ranks of that medical school and in 1913 was appointed Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Medicine of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, a position he held for nine years. He had an abiding interest in tuberculosis, having contracted the disease himself as a student, and for a time also served as visiting chief of the Baltimore Municipal Hospital for Tuberculosis.
According to early ACCA documents, the person selected each year as the Wilson lecturer was one “… distinguished in clinical medicine not so much upon original contributions as upon clinical ability and the influence exerted in promoting the best interest of clinical medicine.”
Dr. Wilson was elected into the ACCA in 1910 and served as our president in 1924. He was also a long-standing member of the Council and for many years chairman of the “Committee on Admissions.” He died on October 26, 1932 at the Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore of a cerebral hemorrhage, when just 55 years old.
The Gordon Wilson Lectures
| 1937 | Warfield T. Longcope, MD. Some Observations on the Course and Outcome of Hemorrhagic Nephritis. |
| 1938 | Henry A. Christian, MD. A Glomerular Dominance in Bright's Disease. |
| 1939 | George R. Minot, MD. Anemias of Nutritional Deficiency. |
| 1940 | Rollin T. Woodyatt, MD. On the Theory of Diabetes. |
| 1941 | Alfred Blalock, MD. Shock of Peripheral Circulatory Failure. |
| 1946 | Rene J. DuBos, PhD. The Experimental Analysis of Tuberculous Infections. |
| 1947 | Cecil James Watson, MD. Some Aspects of the Prophyrin Problem in Relation to Clinical Medicine. |
| 1948 | Hans Selye, MD. General-Adaptation Syndrome. |
| 1949 | Joseph E. Smadel, MD. The Changing Status of the Rickettsoises. |
| 1950 | Wilder Penfield, MD. The Mechanism of Memory. |
| 1951 | Andre Cournand, MD. Clinical and Physic-Pathologic Considerations in Certain Types in Pulmonary Granulomata and Fibrosis. |
| 1952 | Joseph Stokes, Jr., MD. Viral Hepatitis. |
| 1953 | George W. Thorn, MD. Studies on the Adrenal Cortical Response to Stress in Man. |
| 1954 | Allen O. Whipple, MD. The Splenic Circulation in Relation to Certain of the Splenopathies. |
| 1955 | John F. Enders, PhD. Observations on Certain Viruses Causing Exanthematous Diseases in Man. |
| 1956 | Lee E. Enders, PhD. Man, Medicine and the Atom. |
| 1957 | Joseph W. Ferrebee, MD. Factors Affecting the Survival of Transplanted Tissues. |
| 1958 | Ivan L. Bennett, MD. Fever: Experimental Studies. |
| 1959 | Raymond D. Adams, MD. Nutritional Diseases of the Nervous System in the Alcoholic Patient. |
| 1960 | Arnold R. Rich, MD. Visceral Hazards of Hypersensitivity to Drugs. |
| 1961 | William B. Castle, MD. A Century of Curiosity about Pernicious Anemia. |
| 1962 | Jerome W. Conn, MD. Some Clinical and Climatological Aspects of Aldosteronism in Man. |
| 1963 | Albert H. Coons, MD. Current Theories of Antibody Formation. |
| 1964 | Joseph F. Ross, MD. Ionizing Radiation and the Development and Survival of Life. |
| 1965 | Alfred Gellhorn, MD. Clinical and Laboratory Aspects of Medical Oncology. |
| 1966 | E. B. A. Astwood, MD, PhD. Growth Hormones—1966. |
| 1967 | Robert A. Good, PhD, MD, and Joanne Finstad, MD. The Development and Involution of the Lymphoid System and Immunologic Capacity. |
| 1968 | Tinsley R. Harrison, MD. Heart Disease and Heart Failure: Some Recent Progress and Some Future Challenges. |
| 1969 | Eric K. Cruickshank, MD. Clinical Syndromes Associated with Plant Toxins in Jamaica. |
| 1970 | James G. Hirsch, MD. The Digestive Tract of Cells. |
| 1971 | Albert L. Lehninger, PhD. Mitochondria and the Physiology of Ca2½. |
| 1972 | Eugene Braunwald, MD. Investigations on Protection of the Ischemic Myocardium. |
| 1973 | G. D. Aurbach, MD. Biosynthesis, Secretion and Mechanisms of Action of Parathyroid Hormone. |
| 1974 | Robert S. Schwartz, MD. Searching for the Cause of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. |
| 1975 | J. Fraser Mustard, MD. The Function of Blood Platelets. |
| 1976 | Allan L. Goldstein, PhD. The History of the Development of Thymosin: Chemistry, Biology, and Chemical Applications. |
| 1977 | Theodore T. Puck, PhD. The New Cell Biology and its Implications for Medicine. |
| 1978 | Christian J. Lamberston, MD. Undersea Medicine—The Limits of Human Tolerance. |
| 1979 | Daniel Nathans, MD. The New Genetics. |
| 1980 | Richard T. Johnson, MD. Viruses and Chronic Neurological Diseases. |
| 1981 | Russell Ross, MD. Atherosclerosis—A Response to Injury Gone Awry. |
| 1982 | Robert J. Lefkowitz, MD. Adrenergic Receptors: Regulation at the Biochemical, Physiological and Clinical Levels. |
| 1983 | Paul E. Lacy, MD. The Prevention of Immune Rejection of Islet Transplants without Immunosuppressive Drugs. |
| 1984 | Hilary Koprowski, MD. Monoclonal Antibodies in Human Cancer. |
| 1985 | Baruch S. Blumberg, MD. The Biology of Hepatitis B Virus. |
| 1986 | Barry M. Brenner, MD, and Sharon Anderson, MD. Why Kidneys Fail: An Unifying Hypothesis. |
| 1987 | Vernon B. Mountcastle, MD. Representations and the Construction of Reality. |
| 1988 | Darwin J. Prockop, MD, PhD. Collagen. A Vulnerable Gene Protein-System. |
| 1989 | Lewis T. Williams, MD. Growth Factors and Their Receptors—A Proliferating Field. |
| 1990 | Maria I. New, MD. Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. |
| 1991 | Saul Krugman, MD. The ABC's of Viral Hepatitis. |
| 1992 | Waldo R. Fiser, MD, PhD. Plasma Cholesterol: Atherogenesis and Mortality. |
| 1993 | Perry V. Halushka, MD, PhD. Regulation of Thromboxane A2 Receptors by Testosterone: Implications for Steroid Abuse and Cardiovascular Disease. |
| 1994 | Ronald G. Crystal, MD. In Vivo Gene Therapy: A Strategy to Use Human Genes as Therapeutics. |
| 1995 | Diane E. Griffin, MD, PhD. Unique Interactions Between Viruses, -Neurons and the Immune System. |
| 1996 | Gerry S. Oxford, PhD. Decade of the Brain: Advances and Hopes at the Midpoint. |
| 1997 | Mary Lee Vance, MD. Growth Hormone Replacement in Adults and Other Uses. |
| 1998 | Kenneth I. Berns, MD. From Basic Virology to Human Gene Therapy. |
| 1999 | Peter T. Scardino, MD. Natural History and Treatment of Early Stage Prostate Cancer. |
| 2000 | Gary J. Nabel, MD. Viruses and Human Disease. |
| 2001 | Richard M. Weinshilboum, MD. The Mayo Model: One Path to an Academic Medical Center. |
| 2002 | C. Ronald Kahn, MD. Lessons about the Control of Glucose Homeostasis and the Pathogenesis of Diabetes from Knockout Mice. |
| 2003 | Ronald G. Crystal, MD. Therapy for the New Millennium: Using Genetic Medicine to Regenerate Diseased Organs and Protect Against the -Hostile Environment. |
| 2004 | Victor A. McKusick, MD. The Legacy of Jonathan Hutchinson (1828–1913): Syndromology and Dysmorphology Meet Molecular Genetics. |
| 2005 | Charles A. Czeisler, MD, PhD. Work Hours, Sleep and Patient Safety in Residency Training. |
| 2006 | Gerald W. Dorn, II, MD. Neurohormonal Signaling Pathways That Link Cardiac Growth and Death. |
| 2007 | Abraham Verghese, MD. “The Doctor in Our Own Time”: Fildes’ Famous Painting and Perceptions of Physician Attentiveness. |
| 2008 | Michael Welsh, MD. Developing New Models to Understand Cystic Fibrosis. |
| 2009 | Michael A. Gimbrone, Jr., MD. Understanding Vascular Endothelium: A Pilgrim's Progress. |
| 2010 | Lawrence K. Altman, MD. Who Goes First? Historical and Ethical Issues in Self-Experimentation. |
| 2011 | Charles L. Sawyers, MD. Overcoming Drug Resistance to New Cancer Therapies. |
| 2012 | Andrew P. Feinberg, MD, MPH. The Epigenetic Basis of Common Human Disease. |
| 2013 | Peter C. Agre, MD. Opening Doors Worldwide Through Medical Science, Personal Reflections. |
| 2014 | Peter M. Howley, MD. Infectious Disease Causes of Cancer: Opportunities for Prevention and Treatment. |
| 2015 | Judy E. Garber, MD, MPH. Evolution of Clinical Cancer Genetics. |
| 2016 | Thomas McLellan, MD. Substance Misuse and Substance Use Disorders: Why Do They Matter in Healthcare? |
| 2017 | Theodora Ross, MD. The Clinical Impact of Gene Variant (Re)classification: From Truthiness to Truth. |
| 2018 | Harvey Alter, MD. Hepatitis C: From Hippocrates to Cure. |
| 2019 | Barry Coller, MD. Human Genome Editing: The Genie is Out of the Lamp and Now Comes the Hard Part! |
| 2022 | Carlos del Rio, MD. COVID-19—Lessons From the HIV Pandemic. |
| 2022 | Barney S. Graham, MD, PhD. Rapid COVID-19 Vaccine Development and the Future of Vaccinology. |
| 2023 | Victor J. Dzau, MD. Climate, Health, and Equity: The Case for Collective Action From the Health System. |