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Drs. Gabor and Harriette Kaley Lecture in Physiology

Gabor Kaley, Ph.D., served on the NYMC faculty for 43 years. A member of the faculty since 1964, he helped establish GSBMS, and became chairman of the Department of Physiology in 1970. Until he stepped down from that post in 2007, he had the distinction of being the longest-sitting chair of physiology in the nation. 

Born in Budapest, Hungary, Gabor Kaley first studied medicine, but when war intervened, he was sent to a labor camp in Yugoslavia where only 600 of the 6,000 inmates survived, After the war, he boarded a ship for America where he worked as a busboy, cab driver and singing waiter to pay for his studies. After receiving a B.S. in biology at Columbia University, he was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and later used the GI Bill to earn an M.S. in physiology from New York University and a Ph.D. in experimental pathology.

During his career, Dr. Kaley wrote more than 150 articles, edited an authoritative three-volume edition of Microcirculation, gave invited lectures around the world, and served on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals. A member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, he was awarded the Semmelweis Medal in 1982 for his work in microcirculation. In 2001 he received the Wiggers Memorial Award, which recognizes outstanding and lasting contributions to cardiovascular research. He received the Eugene M. Landis Award from the Microcirculatory Society in 1994 and was named the George E. Brown Memorial Lecturer by the Council on Circulation of the American Heart Association in 1998. In 2005, he was named an Eminent Physiology by the American Physiological Society. The honor resulted in a videotaped interview with Dr. Kaley about his life, achievements, and vision of the future of physiology, a record that is now housed in the society’s historical archives. The American Physiological Society (APS) in conjunction with the Microcirculatory Society honors the memory of Dr. Kaley by awarding the Cardiovascular Section Gabor Kaley Memorial Lectureship Award which recognizes an outstanding contributor to the field of microcirculatory physiology/pathophysiology, who is noted for the quality of his/her research and who has demonstrated commitment to the development and training of junior scientists. The APS also awards the Gabor Kaley Professional Opportunity Award in Dr. Kaley's memory.

In addition to the scientific legacy he left behind, Dr. Kaley’s widow, Dr. Harriette Kaley, and their son David Kaley are continuing to support the development of cutting-edge science at New York Medical College by establishing the Drs. Gabor and Harriette Kaley Endowed Lectureship in the Department of Physiology. They have also funded a research effort in the department designed to study the role of microcirculation in Alzheimer’s disease.

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Previous Lectures

			9th Annual Drs. Gabor and Harriette Kaley Endowed Lectureship April 24, 2023 -"Age-Related Vascular Cognitive Impairment: Role of Endothelial Senescence" Anna Csiszar, M.D., Ph.D. Professor, Department of Neurosurgery Donald W. Reynolds Chair in Aging Research University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Oklahoma City, OK
			8th Annual Drs. Gabor and Harriette Kaley Endowed Lectureship April 13, 2022 - "Dawn of the Microcirculation - Emerging Importance of the     Microvasculature in Cardiovascular  Disease" David Gutterman, M.D. Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Sciences Senior Associate Director, Cardiovascular Center Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI
			7th Annual Drs. Gabor and Harriette Kaley Endowed Lectureship April 19, 2021 - “Sex, Hormones and Cardiovascular Disease” Virginia M. Miller, Ph.D. Professor of Surgery and Physiology, Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, Consultant, Department of Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Director, Women’s Health Research Center, Rochester, MN
			6th Annual Drs. Gabor and Harriette Kaley Endowed Lectureship April 11, 2019 - “Myoendothelial Signaling or How Microvascular Smooth Muscle Controls Itself Using Endothelial Cells” Kim Andrea Dora, M.A., Ph.D. Professor of Microvascular Pharmacology University of Oxford and Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, UK
			5th Annual Drs. Gabor and Harriette Kaley Endowed Lectureship May 24, 2018 - "Alzheimer's Disease: Failure of Autoregulation of the Cerebral Circulation?” Akos Koller, M.D., Ph.D. Chairman, Scientific Council Institute of Natural Sciences, University of Physical Education, Budapest, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Pécs, Adjunct Professor of Physiology, New York Medical College
			4th Annual Drs. Gabor and Harriette Kaley Endowed Lectureship May 1, 2017 - “Cardiac Energy Turnover in Health and Disease” Fabio A. Recchia, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Physiology, Sant’Anna School of Advance Studies - Pisa (Italy) Adjunct Professor of Physiology, Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine
			3rd Annual Drs. Gabor and Harriette Kaley Endowed Lectureship April 14, 2016 - “Cardiac Sensory Endings in Heart Failure: It's Not Just About the Pain" Irving Zucker, Ph.D. ’72 Theodore F. Hubbard Professor of Cardiovascular Research Chairman of Cellular and Integrative Physiology in the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha Editor-in-Chief, The American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology
			2nd Annual Drs. Gabor and Harriette Kaley Endowed Lectureship November 20, 2014 - "Molecular Machines of Cell Signaling: Transporters, GPCRs”  Harel Weinstein, D.Sc. Chairman and Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Physiology and Biophysics Director of the Institute for Computational Biomedicine Chair of the Graduate Program in Physiology, Biophysics and Systems Biology Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University
			1st Annual Drs. Gabor and Harriette Kaley Endowed Lectureship October 3, 2013 - “Inflammation, Immunity and Hypertension” David G. Harrison, M.D. Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology Vanderbilt University