Members of the University of Utah’s campus and the broader community are invited to attend the 2025 Benning Society Lecture, “On the Causes of Obesity and Its Treatment: The End of the Beginning,” featuring keynote speaker Jeffrey M. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D. The lecture is presented by the H. A. and Edna Benning Medical Society in partnership with University of Utah Health and will be held on Jan. 13, 2026, at 6 p.m. at the Natural History Museum of Utah.

Friedman is a professor at The Rockefeller University, an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and director of the Rockefeller’s Starr Center for Human Genetics. He earned his M.D. from Albany Medical College and his Ph.D. at Rockefeller, and he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. His discovery of leptin has been widely recognized, including through coverage in Time magazine’s “Best of Science.” A physician-scientist, his work addresses one of today’s most significant health challenges: the rapid rise of obesity and related diseases.

Registration is not required to attend the event. For more details about Friedman’s work and the lecture, please visit the event page.

About the H. A. and Edna Benning Medical Society

The H. A. and Edna Benning Presidential Endowment was established through a generous gift to the University of Utah through the estate of Arthur E. Benning in honor of his parents, H. A. and Edna Benning. The endowment enables the university’s Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine to recruit and retain top researchers and clinicians across various fields. The endowment also establishes the prestigious H. A. and Edna Benning Medical Society. The group includes each of the Benning chairholders and sponsors a lecture or symposium series held at the university focusing on leading-edge medicine.