1955 - Present
2026 Hans-Dieter Sues, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution: Passed away prior to delivering lecture.
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
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 Dinosaurs
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 Birds
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
