1955 - Present
2024 Pincelli Hull, Yale University, Too fast? Too much? Using fossils to understand biodiversity dynamicson an ever-changing planet
2023 Jukka Jernvall, University of Helsinki, Nature Read in Tooth: How Organs are Scaled During Development & Evolution
2019 Anna K. Behrensmeyer, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Recycling, Taphonomy and the Fossil Record:A Unifying Concept for Paleobiology
2017 Steven M. Holland, The University of Georgia, The Stratigraphy of Mass Extinction
2016 John Hutchinson, Royal Veterinary College, University of London: The Evolutionary Struggles of Giant Land Animals Against Gravity
2015 Susan M. Kidwell, University of Chicago: Dead Shells Do Tell Tales: Evaluating Human Impacts Using the Youngest Fossil Record
2014 Peter Wilf, Pennsylvania State University: Patagonian Fossil Floras: Keys to the Origins, Biogeography, Biodiversity, and Survival of the Gondwanan Rainforest Biome
2013 R. Ewan Fordyce, University of Otago: Drifting Continents, Changing Climates and the Evolution of Whales and Dolphins
2012 William L. Crepet, Cornell University: History, Darwin, and the Mystery: the Elusive Fossil Record of the Flowering Plants (Tuesday, February 7, 2012; Rackham Amphitheatre: 8 pm)
2010 Carlton E. Brett, University of Cincinnati: Eo-Ulrichian to Neo-Ulrichian: Lessons from a 450 Million-Year-Old 'Layer Cake' in the Classic Cincinnatian (Upper Ordovician)
2009 Warren D. Allmon, Cornell University: Back to the Future, Forward to the Past: The Role(s) of Natural History Museums in the Modern World
2008 Stephen T. Jackson, University of Wyoming: Looking backward and forward from the Quaternary
2007 Luo, Zhe-xi , Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Paleontology in China: Early Life to Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Mammals
2006 Jenkins, Farish A., Harvard University: Fins to Limbs: the fish-tetrapod transition
2005 Johnson, Kirk, Denver Museum of Nature and Science: The rise of the Rocky Mountains, tropical rainforest in Colorado, and the K-T boundary
2004 Briggs, Derek E.G., Yale University: Death and construction— the preservation of soft-bodied fossils
2003 Sereno, Paul, University of Chicago: Dinosaurs and drifting continents
2002 Wing, Scott L., Smithsonian Institution: Do plants experience mass extinctions?
2001 Jablonski, David, University of Chicago: The evolutionary role of mass extinction: disaster, recovery, and something in between
2000 Knoll, Andrew H., Harvard University: Viewing the Cambrian explosion from below: new windows on terminal Proterozoic biology
1999 DiMichele, William A., Smithsonian Institution: History and dynamics of the Paleozoic tropics: ecological lessons from the primaeval forest
1998 Padian, Kevin, University of California, Berkeley: How did birds evolve from
1997 Bambach, Richard K., Virginia Polytechnic Institute: History’s worst disaster: the Permian extinction— a scientific whodunit
1996 Webb, Thompson, Brown University: Late quaternary climates and vegetation in Eastern North America: data and modeling results
1995 Novacek, Michael J., American Museum of Natural History: Mammalian evolution: from Gobi fossils to gene sequences
1994 Vermeij, Geerat, University of California, Davis: Economics, volcanoes, and the history of life
1993 Colinvaux, Paul A., Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute: Climate and diversity of the ice-age Amazon
1992 Vrba, Elizabeth, Yale University: Evolving hominids in evolving paleoenvironments
1991 Conway Morris, Simon, Cambridge University: Crucible of creation: the Burgess Shale faunas and organic evolution
1990 Crane, Peter R., Field Museum of Natural History: Origin of modern vegetation and the early evolution of flowers
1989 Webb, S. David, University of Florida: The Great American biotic interchange
1988 Hallam, Anthony, University of Birmingham: How catastrophic was the end- Cretaceous extinction: did the dinosaurs go out with a whimper or a bang?
1987 Niklas, Karl J., Cornell University: Functional morphology and the evolution of plant shape: accident or design?
1986 Cartmill, Matt, Duke University: Revolutionary cant in evolutionary rhetoric: the myth of the scientific revolution
1985 Raup, David, University of Chicago: Mass extinction
1984 Davis, Margaret B., University of Minnesota: Seed dispersal and recent changes in range limits of forest trees
1983 Clemens, William A., University of California, Berkeley: Extinction and survival during the Cretaceous-Tertiary transition
1982 Stanley, Steven M., Johns Hopkins University: Species selection and large-scale trends in evolution
1981 Banks, Harlan, Cornell University: Patterns of evolutionary change in early land floras
1979 Jones, David L., U. S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park: Mesozoic accretionary tectonics of western North America significance for biostratigraphy and paleobiogeography
1978 Leopold, Estella B., University of Washington: Pliocene plant and animal communities from the Snake River Plain, Idaho
1977 Ostrom, John H., Yale University: Dinosaurian physiology and the origin of
1976 Rhodes, Frank H. T., University of Michigan: The evolution of evolution
1975 Wolfe, Jack A., U. S. Geological Survey: A paleobotanical interpretation of Tertiary climates in the Northern Hemisphere
1974 Semken, Holmes A. Jr., University of Iowa: Ice Age climates
1973 Kauffman, Erle G., U. S. National Museum Smithsonian Institution: The early evolution of Caribbean reef communities
1972 Gould, Stephen J., Harvard University: Ontogeny and phylogeny
1971 Savage, Donald E., University of California, Berkeley: Cenozoic mammal geochronology and radiometric dating in North America
1970 Wright, Herbert E., University of Minnesota: Man’s modification of the landscape— a paleoecologic study
1969 Kier, Porter M., U. S. National Museum: Living habits of fossil and recent echinoids
1968 Simons, Elwyn L., Yale University: Recent discoveries pertinent to the history of higher primates
1967 Laudon, Lowell R., University of Wisconsin: Origin of the Rocky Mountain system of western North America
1966 Swinton, William E., University of Toronto: Environment of the dinosaurs
1965 Jepsen, Glenn L., Princeton University: Taxonomic roots and patterns in phylogeny
1964 Wilson, John A., University of Texas: Geology and newer mathematics, some analogies
1962 Newell, Norman D., American Museum of Natural History: Crises in the history of life
1961 Simpson, George G., American Museum of Natural History: Patterns of evolution
1959 Carpenter, Frank M., Harvard University: Evolution of the insects
1958 Wetmore, Alexander, U. S. National Museum: The birds of the Pleistocene of North America
1957 Dorf, Erling, Princeton University: The earth’s changing climates
1956 Camp, Charles L., University of California, Berkeley: Interpreting the fossil record
1955 Romer, Alfred S., Harvard University: Permian redbeds, fossils and vertebrate evolution
