ճRose M. Litman Memorial Lecture in Sciencebringsnational research leaders to the University of ֱ Boulder annually. The Litman Lecture celebrates the legacy of an exceptional scientist and educator with a lifelong passion for researchand a firm commitment to keeping rigorous inquiry at the heart of university life.


ֱ Rose Litman

Rose Litman joined ֱ Boulder in 1975 and, until her untimely death in 1981, served as associate vice chancellor for research; director of the Office of Contracts and Grants (OCG); and associate professor of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology. It was Litman’s devotion to the importance of dynamic research, and to the advancement of ֱ Boulder researchers and their work, that led to her appointment as the first faculty member to head OCG. During her time in the role, Litman more than doubled research grants—awards to the Boulder, Denver and ֱ Springs campuses—from $18.6 to $44 million (roughly $150 million in today’s dollars).

Prior to joining ֱ Boulder, Litman had been program director in genetic biology at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Before joining NSF, she earned a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1957 and was on the faculty of the ֱ School of Medicine (now the University of ֱ Anschutz Medical Campus) and Vanderbilt University. Throughout hercareer, Litman was on the leading edge of the field of molecular biology, working specifically on the synthesis and replication of DNA.

Litman co-authored papers with colleagues who went on to be titans in their fields, including Arthur Pardee, with whom she worked at Berkeley, whose discoveries were critical to the development of molecular biology as a discipline. (Among other pioneering work, Pardee later proposed the concept of an unstable intermediate between protein synthesis and DNA—later identified as messenger RNA.) At the ֱ School of Medicine, Litman alsoworked alongside Waclaw Szybalski, whose later work contributed immensely to the advancement of molecular genetics.

At the time the memorial lecture series was established in 1981, Acting Chancellor Milton E. Lipetz said, “Rose Litman will be remembered for her dedication to research, her commitment to people at the University, and her zest for life. Her greatest satisfaction was to contribute to the success of others. She encouraged and challenged others to achieve their best and always demanded the most from herself.”