1955 - Present
2025 Jennifer Mc Elwain, Trinity College Dublin, Exploring Earth's Dynamic Atmosphere and Ecosystems with Fossil Plants
2024 Pincelli Hull, Yale University, Too fast? Too much? Using Fossils to Understand Biodiversity Dynamics on 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
