Special Lectures and Events
A number of lectures and events in the INSIGHTS series are made possible thanks to generous donations and endowments. These are received from benefactors, friends of Ãå±±½ûµØ, and alumni.
Albert Latner Memorial Lecture in Clinical Biochemistry
Origins: The Albert Latner Memorial Lecture in Clinical Biochemistry was established in 1995 by his family to celebrate the life and many achievements of Albert Latner (1912-1992). He was the first Professor of Clinical Biochemistry at Ãå±±½ûµØ.
Subject: Medicine
Frequency: Every 2 years
List of past Albert Latner Memorial Lectures
- 2018-19 - Professor Anne-Marie Minihane, University of East Anglia - Fish oils and brain health: what dose does what in whom?
- 2017-18 - Professor Anne Tybjærg-Hansen, University of Copenhagen - Familial cholesterol, an undiagnosed and undertreated disease
- 2016-17 - Professor Bill Fraser, Professor of Medicine, University of East Anglia - Give me sunshine
- 2015-16 - Professor Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine, Glasgow University - Cholesterol, statins and heart attack risks: the truth of the matter
- 2013-14 Professor Ian Young, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Centre for Public Health, Queen’s University, Belfast - My cholesterol – Why is it high? How low to go?
- 2011-12 - Professor Stephen O’Rahilly, FRS, Professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Medicine, University of Cambridge - Common metabolic disease – lessons from the extreme
- 2010-11 Professor Panjaj Vadgama, Director, Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biomedical Materials, Queen Mary, University of London - Making biosensors to track an unstable world
- 2008-09 Professor Chris Higgins, Vice-Chancellor and Warden, Durham University - Stem cells: science, medicine and ethics
- 2001-02 Professor Christopher Edwards, Vice-Chancellor - From the bedside to the bench: in support of clinical biochemistry
- 1996-97 Professor K G M M Alberti, Dean of Medicine, Ãå±±½ûµØ upon Tyne - Biochemistry in the field: From Killingworth to Kilimanjaro
Charlton Memorial Lecture
Origins: The Charlton Memorial Lecture was founded by George Charlton in 1919 in memory of his brother William Henry Charlton (1846-1918) who studied in the Fine Art Department at Armstrong College. Born in Ãå±±½ûµØ, William travelled across Britain and Europe, studying for a time at Académie Julian in Paris.
Subject: Fine Art
Frequency: Every 2 years
List of past Charlton Memorial Lectures
- 1919 Walter J. James, MA, RE (Lord Northbourne) - The Development of Modern Landscape
- 1920 Professor William Richard Lethaby - City Improvement
- 1921 George Clausen, RA - Vermeer of Delf and Modern Painting
- 1922 Sir Thomas Walker Arnold, C I E - Survivals of Sasanian & Manichaean art in Persian painting
- 1923 William Norton Howe - The Eye of Erasmus. A scholar's Outlook upon Contemporary Art
- 1924 F Ernest Jackson - Form
- 1925 John D Revel, ARCA, RPS, ROI - Expression in Art
- 1926 Professor Arthur Mayger Hind - Etchings of Rembrandt
- 1927 Allan Durst - The Use of Material in Sculpture
- 1928 Bernard Rackham - The Art of the Italian Potter
- 1929 Lowes Dalbiac Luard - The Quest of Design. A Discussion of Method
- 1930 Hubert Wellington - Delacroix and the Centenary of the Romantic Movement
- 1931 The Right Honourable The Lord Northbourne - Imitation, Illustration and Representation
- 1932 Professor Herbert Read - The Scope of Modern Art
- 1933 Cecil Delisle Burns - The Place of the Arts in Modern Civilisation
- 1934 Dr Oskar Fischel - Supplementary Charlton Lectures: Raphael and the Sistine Chapel
- 1934 Dr Oskar Fischel - Supplementary Charlton Lectures: Two Thousand Years of the Theatre
- 1934 Eric Gill - The Place of Sculpture in Modern Civilisation
- 1935 Professor Lionel B Budden - The Place of Architecture in Modern Civilisation
- 1936 William George Constable - Mantegna and Humanism in Fifteenth Century Italy
- 1937 John Davidson Beazley - Attic White Lekythoi
- 1938 Thomas Downing Kendrick - Late Anglo Saxon and Viking Art
- 1939 Sir Kenneth Clarke - The Aesthetics of Still Life
- 1940 Charles Henry Hunter Blair - Medieval English Heraldry
- 1941 Joseph Terence Burke - Hogarth and Reynolds: a contrast in English art theory
- 1942 Professor Patrick Abercrombie - The Artists' place in the Physical Reconstruction after the War; The Place of Civic Landscape Design
- 1943 Professor Niklaus Pevsner - The Open Air Portrait. The Relation of Man to Landscape
- 1944 H Ruhemann - Routine and Inspiration in Painting
- 1945 Alan Walton - Interior Design
- 1946 David Talbot Rice - The Byzantine Element in Late Saxon Art
- 1947 Basil. Wright - The Art and Use of the Film
- 1948 John Pope Hennessey - The Interaction of Painting and Sculpture in Florence in the Fifteenth Century
- 1949 Professor Anthony Blunt - Picasso and his Work
- 1950 Rudolf. Wittkower - Bernini: The Bust of Louis XIV
- 1951 Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse - Titian: Diana and Actaeon
- 1952 R. P. Hinks (Roger Packman) - Caravaggio: Death of the Virgin
- 1954 Johannes Wilde - Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564. Victory
- 1954 T. S. R. Boase (Thomas Sherrer Ross) - Valdes Leal: Christ Bearing the Cross
- 1955 Gombrich, EH - Raphael: Madonne della Sedia
- 1956 J. M. C. Toynbee (Jocelyn M. C.) - The Flavian Reliefs from the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome
- 1957 Oliver Millar - Rubens: The Whitehall Ceiling
- 1958 George Heard. Hamilton - Monet: Rouen Cathedral
- 1959 Leopold D. Ettlinger - Kandinsky's 'At Rest'
- 1960 Nikolaus Pevsner Sir - The Choir of Lincoln Cathedral : an Interpretation
- 1961 Francis Watson - The Choiseul box
- 1962 Michael Levey - Tiepolo: The Banquet of Cleopatra
- 1963 Quentin. Bell - Degas: Le Viol
- 1964 Cecil Hilton Monk Gould - Michaelangelo: The Battle of Cascina
- 1965 Ronald Alley - Picasso: The Three Dancers
- 1966 Michael. Kitson - Claude Lorrain : Landscape with the Nymph Egeria
- 1967 Alan Bowness - Courbet: Atelier du Peintre
- 1968 John K. G. Shearman - Pontormo's altarpiece in S. Felicita
- 1969 Roland Penrose - Max Ernst's Celebes
- 1970 Peter Murray - Bramante: Tiempietto
- 1972 John. Golding - Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
- 1974 Michael. Podro - Piero della Francesco's Legend of the True Cross
- 1978 John E. C. T. White - Pieter Bruegel and the Fall of the Art Historian
- 1983 Peter. Lasko - Two Ivory Kings in the British Museum and the Norman Conquest
- 1985 Norbert Lynton - The Speaking Tower. Tatlin's Monument to the Russian Revolution
- 1991 J Dawn Ades - Surrealism and Natural History
- 1996 Dr Neil MacGregor - Rembrandt’s war heroine: The Public and their Pictures and the Portrait of Margaretha de Geer
- 1998 Sune Nordgren - From Flour Mill to Art Factory
- 2004 Giles Waterford - Below stairs: four hundred years of servant portraits
- 2012 Paul Binski - Medieval aesthetics and the heroic age of Gothic invention
- 2015 Fiona MacCarthy - Art for the people: William Morris and his legacy
- 2019 Maria Balshaw - Art history in motion: art museums and their publics in a 2020 world
Fickling Lecture
Origins: The Fickling Lecture on Developments in Children’s Literature brings a major contemporary voice to Ãå±±½ûµØ to reflect on children’s literature and culture. It is generously supported by . The lecture is organised in collaboration with the Children’s Literature Unit which is part of the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics.
Subject: Developments in children's literature
Frequency: Annually
Holmes Memorial Lectures
Origins: The Holmes Memorial Lectures were founded in 1937 as a memorial to Ãå±±½ûµØ born John H Holmes (1857-1935), one of the great pioneers of the development of electrical engineering. The lectures are designed for 10- to 14-year-olds with the intention of fostering an interest in science. The current format is two lectures over consecutive weeks.
Subject: Science
Frequency: Annual, usually in January
List of past Jack Jeffery Lectures
- 2019-20 Professor Simon Szreter, University of Cambridge - Incentivising an ethical economics. What can we learn today from the last five centuries of our history?
- 2014-15 Sir Liam Donaldson, Chancellor of Ãå±±½ûµØ and former Chief Medical Officer for England - Sustainable healthcare: a 21st century imperative
- 2011-12 Tim Jackson, Professor of Sustainable Development, University of Surrey and Director of the Economic and Social Research Council Group on Lifestyles, Values and Environments - Where is the new economy? Prosperity, work, and sustainability ‘after the crisis’
- 2009-10 Jonathan Porritt, Founder Director of the Forum for the Future, and Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission - Avoiding the ultimate recession
List of past Jacobson Lectures
- 2019-20 Professor Fiona Watt, King’s College London - Understanding stem cells
- 2017-18 Professor Sir Simon Wessely, King’s College London - We need to talk about Nigel
- 2015-16 Professor Sir John Savill, Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council - The future of clinical research
- 2014-15 Professor Sir John Tooke, Vice Provost (Health), University College London and President of the Academy of Medical Sciences - Harnessing medical science for public good: the innovation challenge
- 2013-14 Professor Sir Peter Rubin, Professor of Therapeutics and Consultant Physician at the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham - Doctors aren’t what they used to be
- 2012-13 Professor Sir Ian Gilmore MD FRCP, University of Liverpool - The importance of medical professionalism, leadership and advocacy in improving the nation’s health
- 2010-11 Professor Fran Balkwill, Centre Lead, Cancer and Inflammation, Queen Mary, University of London - Cures for cancer – mission possible in the twenty-first century?
- 2009-10 Riccardo Fodde, Professor of Experimental Pathology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam - Cancer stem cells: Are you a Chelsea or Man United supporter?
- 2004-05 Professor Robin Poole, Depts of Surgery and Medicine, McGill University, Canada Director of Joint Diseases Laboratory, Shriners Hospitals for Children Scientific Co-Director, Canadian Arthritus Network - New ways of dealing with an old problem – the fight against arthritis
- 2003-04 Dr Mark Lowdell, Senior Lecturer in Haemotology, Royal Free College Medical School - The incredible bulk: the role of the immune system in the treatment and care of leukaemia
- 2001-02 Professor Scott Friedman, Professor of Medicine and Director of Liver Research, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York - The new frontier in liver disease: mechanisms and treatment of hepatic fibrosis
- 2000-01 Professor W Löwenberg, Professor of Haematology, Erasmus University, Rotterdam - Leukaemia in the 21st century
- 1999-00 Professor Reinhard Hohlfeld, Institute of Clinical Neuroimmunology, University of Munich - When the immune system attacks the nervous system
- 1997-98 Professor Leslie L Robison, Director, Division of Paediatric Epidemiology and Clinical Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis - Why do children get cancer?
- 1993-94 Professor Robert W Barnes, Chairman of the Department of Surgery, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences - But can he/she operate? Teaching and evaluating surgical skill
- 1991-92 Professor J R Turtle, University of Sydney, Australia - Title unknown
- 1989-90 Dr Louis Lasagna, Dean, Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University, USA - Is medicine the new ‘dismal science’?
- 1987-88 Professor Michiel J Janse, Professor of Experimental Cardiology, University of Amsterdam - Electricity rules the heart
- 1986-87 Caroline Breese Hall, George Washington Golder Professor of Paediatrics and Medicine, University of Rochester, N.Y. - Taking colds to Ãå±±½ûµØ
- 1985-86 Donald Campbell, Professor of Anaesthesia, University of Glasgow - The Hunterian Legacy – A tale of two brothers
Riddell Memorial Lectures
Origins: The Riddell Lectures were endowed by Dr Wilfred Hall, a member of the Council of Armstrong College. commemorating Sir John Walter Buchanan Riddell, a distinguished member of a historic Northumberland family, who died in 1924. They are comprised of two separate but connected lectures, delivered on consecutive evenings.
Subject: Religion
Frequency: Every 2 years
List of past Riddell Memorial Lectures
- 1928-1929 C C J Webb - Religion and the thought of to-day
- 1929-1930 W M Thornton OBE - The scientific background of the Christian Creeds
- 1930-1931 The Revd O C Quick - Philosophy and the cross
- 1931-1932 Sir J Arthur Thomson - Purpose in evolution
- 1932-1933 The Very Revd William Ralph Inge - The eternal values
- 1933-1934 J L Stocks - On the nature and grounds of religious belief
- 1934-1935 Bronislaw Malinowski - The foundations of faith and morals: an anthropological analysis of primitive beliefs and conduct with special reference to the fundamental problems of religion and ethics
- 1935-1936 Charles E Raven - Evolution and the Christian concept of god 1936-1937 Tom Hatherley Pear Religion and contemporary psychology
- 1937-1938 FM Powicke - History, freedom and religion
- 1938-1939 William George De Burgh - Knowledge of the individual
- 1940-1941 Robert H Thouless - Conventionalization and Assimilation in religious movements as problems in social psychology – with special mention to the development of Buddhism and Christianity
- 1941-1942 William Henry Bragg - Science and faith
- 1942-1943 Edmund Taylor Whittaker - The beginning and end of the world
- 1943-1944 C S Lewis - The abolition of man (or Reflections on education with special reference to the teaching of English in the upper forms of school)
- 1944-1945 Lord Eustace Percy - The unknown state: a plea for the study of government
- 1945-1946 John Baillie - What is Christian civilisation?
- 1946-1947 Michael Polyani - Science, faith and society
- 1947-1948 A D Ritchie - Science and politics
- 1948-1949 I A Richmond - Archaeology and the after-life in Pagan and Christian imagery
- 1949-1950 Sir Walter Moberly - Responsibility
- 1950-1951 Sir Frederic Bartlett CBE - Religion as experience, belief, action
- 1951-1952 Sir Herbert Butterfield - Christianity in European history
- 1952-1953 H A Hodges - Languages, standpoints and attitudes
- 1953-1954 C A Coulson - Christianity in an age of science
- 1954-1955 Sir Thomas Murray Taylor - The discipline of virtue
- 1955-1956 Reginald O Kapp - Facts and faith: the dual nature of reality
- 1956-1957 Helen Gardner - The limits of literary criticism: reflections on the interpretation of poetry and scripture 1957-1958 H G Wood Freedom and necessity in history
- 1957-1958 Sir Russell Brain - The Nature of Experience
- 1958-1959 The Rev WA Whitehouse - Order, Goodness and Glory: a religious view of nature
- 1959-1960 Mrs NK Chadwick - The Age of the Saints – a literary and historical study of the early Celtic Church
- 1960-1961 Dr WH Thorpe - Biology and the Nature of Man
- 1961-1962 DL Munby, MA - The Idea of a Secular Society
- 1963-1964 Professor the Rev Canon IT Ramsey - Christian Discourse and Argument
- 1964-1965 A MacIntyre MA - Secularization and Moral Change
- 1965-1966 Professor David Daube - Collaboration with Tyranny in Rabbinic Law
- 1966-1967 Professor CH Waddington - Biology and Human Purpose
- 1968-1969 Professor RC Zaehner - Dialectical Christianity and Christian Materialism
- 1969-1970 Dr Christopher Hill - Antichrist in Seventeenth Century England
- 1970-1971 Professor DM Mackinnon - Some Reflections on the Relation of Religion and Ethics
- 1971-1972 Professor Desmond Pond - The Deserted Temple
- 1972-1973 Professor Kathleen Coburn - The Self Conscious Imagination: a Consideration of Coleridge’s Notebooks
- 1974-1975 Dr B R Wilson - Contemporary Transformations of Religion
- 1976-1977 Professor DM Mackay - Science, Change and Providence
- 1978-1979 Professor JH Hick - Meaning and Experience in Religion
- 1980-1981 Dr Geza Vermez - The Gospel of Jesus the Jew
- 1982-1983 Professor Cyril Mango - How Constantinople Became the New Jerusalem
- 1984-1985 Professor John Bowker - Licensed Insanities: Religions and the Belief in God
- 1986-1987 Professor DZ Phillips - Gods Word and Our Words
- 1988-1989 Professor Stanley Hauerwas - Happiness, the Life of Virtue and Fellowship
- 1990-1991 Rev Dr John Polkinghorne - Reason and Reality – The Interaction of Science and Theology
- 1992-1993 Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks - Judaism and Contemporary Moral Dilemmas
- 1994-1995 Lord Walton of Detchant - Dilemmas of Life and Death
- 1996-1997 Dr John Habgood - Are Persons Possible?
- 1998-1999 Professor Sarah Coakley - Knowing Otherwise: Gender, Philosophy and ‘Religious Experience’
- 2000-2001 Archbishop Rowan Williams - Temptation and self-knowledge: how early Christianity shapes the modern self
- 2002-2003 Professor Eamon Duffy - People Praying
- 2005-2006 Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss - Judicial perspectives on ethical dilemmas
- 2007-2008 Professor Alister McGrath - Standing on the shore of the ocean of truth
- 2010-2011 Professor Richard Bauckham - Our ecological woes: a Christian response
- 2011-2012 Father Timothy Radcliffe - Imagining Christian truth
- 2013-2014 Baroness Ilora Finlay - The challenges of terminal illness
- 2017-2018 Sir James Macmillan - A Catholic composer’s perspective on musical and extra-musical Considerations in the modern world
- 2019-2020 Lucy Winkett - Good news in an age of fake news? The place of mercy in a post-truth society
Robinson Prize Lecture in Cosmology
Origins: The Robinson Prize Lecture was established in 1990 following a generous donation from Philip Robinson, a distinguished bookseller from the city. The prize enabled the establishment of a prize in the field of Cosmology, reflecting the interests of the benefactor.
Subject: Cosmology
Frequency: Every 2 years
Sophia Lecture
Origins: The Sophia Lecture was founded in 1977. It is endowed by members of the Bosanquet family in memory of Ellen Sophia Bosanquet (1875-1965), daughter of the late Dr Thomas Hodgkin, first Treasurer of Armstrong College, and mother of Charles I C Bosanquet, first Vice-Chancellor of this University.
Subject: Any suitable subject, delivered by a prominent female speaker
Frequency: Every 2 years
List of past Sophia Lectures
- 19 January 1978 - Dame Veronica Wedgwood, DBE, CM - The English Civil War in Perspective
- 10 March 1980 - Dame Josephine Barnes, DBE FR CP FR CS FROOG - Twentieth Century Gynaecologist
- 22 October 1981 - Professor Dorothy M Hodgkin, OM FRS Nobel Laureate - On Making Peace Possible
- 10 November 1983 - Jean Floud, CBE BSc (Econ) MA HonLittD HonDLitt - Dangerousness and the Law: Risk, Uncertainty and the Protection of the Public
- 17 November 1985 - Baroness Platt of Writtle - Making Equal Opportunities a Reality
- 20 March 1990 - Mrs Mary Midgley - Why the Environment Matters
- 20 October 1993 - Dr Sheila Cassidy - Living with Fear
- 19 October 1995 - Bridget Kendall MBE - Russia and America: a Correspondent’s View
- 27 November 1997 - Ann Paludan - Reading Chinese Sculpture: A New Look at a Great Sculptural Tradition
- 14 October 1999 - Professor Dame Jessica Rawson - Ancestral Spirits and Extraordinary Deities: Religious Change in Ancient China
- 2 May 2002 - Libby Purves - A free woman?
- 2 March 2004 - Rabbi Julia Neuberger DBE - The Moral State We’re In
- 21 November 2006 - Jane Glover - Mozart’s Women
- 30 October 2008 - Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell - A Female Astronomer Reflects
- 17 May 2011 - Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty - Common values, common politics: human rights in a new era of British Government
- 24 October 2013 - Camila Batmanghelidjh, Founder and Chief Executive of Kids Company - Scaffolding and care
- 9 December 2014 - Uta Frith, Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development, University College London - A little bit autistic?
- 8 May 2018 - Nicola LeFanu, Composer - A composer’s half-century