Special Lectures and Events

Overview

Our special lectures and events cover a wide range of topics from medicine and science, to fine art and religion. These events are held annually or biennially.

We showcase expert speakers and celebrate the University's rich history and intellectual heritage.

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 Newcastle University.

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, Newcastle 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 Newcastle, 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 Newcastle to reflect on children’s literature and culture. It is generously supported by David Fickling Books. 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

List of past Fickling Lectures

Holmes Memorial Lectures

Origins: The Holmes Memorial Lectures were founded in 1937 as a memorial to Newcastle 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

Jack Jeffery Lecture

Origins: The Jack Jeffery Lecture was set up by a donation from Jack Jeffery (1930-2017), a Newcastle University Alumnus and Chair of Convocation.

Subject: Environment and Sustainability
Frequency: Every 2 years

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 Newcastle University 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

Jacobson Lecture

Origins: The Jacobson Lecture is endowed by a generous gift from the Ruth and Lionel Jacobson Fund.‌

Subject: Medicine
Frequency: Annual

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 Newcastle
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

INSIGHTS Public Lectures

Join our mailing list