Dr. Lantos is Director of the Bioethics Center at Children's Mercy Hospital and Clinics and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. Prior to his arrival in Kansas City, he practiced and taught at the University of Chicago for 21 years.

The Sims lecture series was established in honor of Matthew Vandivier Sims, who died in infancy. It is a collaboration between the Matthew Vandivier Sims Memorial Lecture Fund and the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions.