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Campus Speaker and Conference Funding

The Office of the Provost administers several endowed lecture funds that support campus-wide lectures and programming in various disciplines. Invited guest speakers are intended to foster intellectual discussion across the campus community and to promote networking, scholarly exchange and collaboration for Northwestern faculty and external colleagues.

Following are brief descriptions of these funds and their intended usage.

Harris Lecture Fund

The N. W. Harris Lecture Fund was established as a gift from Norman W. Harris in 1906 to provide "for the establishment and maintenance of a course of lectures." Mr. Harris designed the fund to bring "scholarly investigation covering the whole field of human knowledge" to the "students and friends of Northwestern" and by extension to the world.

Hollister Lecture Fund

The John H. Hollister Lecture Fund, established by his daughter Isabelle Hollister Martin, supports lecture programs broadly related to the improvement of public health. John H. Hollister was a founder of the Northwestern Medical School and served as President of the Illinois Medical Society, President of the Chicago Medical Society and an early member of the Board of Directors of the American Medical Association.

Klopsteg Lecture Fund

The Klopsteg Lecture Series Fund was established by Dr. Paul E. Klopsteg to support lectures in which science or engineering overlap with the humanities. Dr. Klopsteg was the President of Central Scientific Company, Associate Director of the National Science Foundation, and President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He joined the Northwestern Physics faculty in 1944 and served as Director of the Northwestern Technical Institute. Most recently, the Klopsteg Lecture Series Fund supported the Science in Human Culture seminar series.

 

Amount

Faculty can request funding up to $5,000. Eligible expenses include honorarium, travel expenses, meals and venue for the public lecture. Faculty and/or their departments are responsible for organizing and processing expenses for the visit, including travel, events and publicizing the public lecture, as well as payment to the speaker.

Eligibility

Full-time, benefits-eligible faculty. Departments may submit an application on behalf of more than one faculty member, or an individual faculty member may submit an application.

Application

The online application requires an estimated budget and the shared research interests of the proposed speaker and Northwestern faculty member(s).

Deadline

Applications for funding will be accepted on a rolling basis until funding is no longer available.

Questions

Please direct questions to Office of the Provost Director for Faculty Joan Johnson at faculty@northwestern.edu.