In memory of the Dreyfus brothers, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Inc. has established the Dreyfus Lectureship at the University of Basel. The annual Lectureship brings a leading chemist from the United States to the Basel campus to deliver a series of talks and to meet with faculty and students in order to enhance the relationship between Swiss and U.S. science.

The Department of Chemistry of the University of Basel and the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation are pleased to announce the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Lectures 2026 by Prof. Dr. Kevan Shokat (University of California, San Francisco).

19th November 2026
Lecture "Overcoming the Undruggable Nature of the Most Common Human Oncogene, K-Ras" and award ceremony
17.00 h, Large Lecture Hall, Organic Chemistry, St. Johanns-Ring 19, 4056 Basel
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20th November 2026
Lecture “Development of Next Generation Chemical Strategies in Drug Discovery”
17.00 h, Large Lecture Hall, Organic Chemistry, St. Johanns-Ring 19, 4056 Basel
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Kevan Shokat is professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco, and a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been awarded the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Lectureship for his outstanding achievements in the field of chemical biology. Research in his group is dedicated to the use of chemical genetics to study and target signaling proteins, with the aim of finding new ways to treat human diseases.

Kevan Shokat (born in 1964) received his B.A. from Reed College in 1986, his PhD at UC Berkeley in 1991, and did then a post-doctoral training at Stanford University. In 1994, he began his independent career at Princeton University. He moved to the University of California, San Francisco, in 1999 where he remains today as Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology.

In recognition of his achievements Kevan Shokat has received numerous honors and awards, including the Stephenson Global Prize for research in pancreatic cancer, the annual Award for Scientific Discovery from the National Academy of Sciences, the Sjöberg Prize Swedish Academy of Sciences, and elections to the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

2025   Prof. Dr. James K. McCusker (Michigan State University)
2024   Prof. Dr. Eric N. Jacobsen (Harvard University)
2023   Prof. Dr. Steven Benner (Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Alachua, Florida)
2020   Prof. Dr. Roald Hoffmann (Cornell University, Nobel laureate)
2019    Prof. Dr. Emily A. Carter (University of California, Los Angeles and Princeton University)
2018    Prof. Dr. David MacMillan (Princeton University)
2017    Prof. Dr. David Weitz (Harvard University)
2016    Prof. Dr. John Hartwig (University of California, Berkeley)
2015    Prof. Dr. Chad A. Mirkin (Northwestern University)
2014    Prof. Dr. Marye Anne Fox (University of California, San Diego)
2013    Prof. Dr. George M. Whitesides (Harvard University)