1986 Dr John H Steele FRS: "The Role of the Oceans in Global Change"
1987 Professor James E Lovelock FRS: "The Oceans of Gaia - Geophysiology in a Marine Environment"
1988 Sir John Mason CB, DSc, FRS: "The Role of the Ocean in Global Climate"
1989 no lecture
1990 Professor Geoffrey Eglinton FRS: "Wither Marine Organic Chemistry?"
1991 Professor Sir Eric Denton CBE, FRS: "Silvery Fish - Appearing and Disappearing"
1992 Professor Peter S. Liss BSc, PhD: "How does the Atmosphere Affect the Biogeochemistry of the Oceans and Vice Versa?"
1993 Dr John Woods: "Simulating the Upper Ocean Ecosystem by the Langrangian Ensemble Method"
1994 Professor Ian A Johnston: "Adaptation to Temperature Change in Marine Fish"
1995 Dr Robert R Dickson FRSE: "The Physical and Biological Response to Decadal Change in the West Atlantic"
1996 Professor Farooq Azam: "How Important are Bacteria in Controlling the Ocean’s Biogeochemical Dynamics?"
1997 Professor John M Huthnance: "Ocean Shelf Exchange, Controls and Consequences"
1998 Professor Harry Elderfield: "Chemistry of the Glacial Ocean – a status report"
1999 Professor Trevor Platt FRS: "Control of Primary Productivity in High Nitrate Regions"
2000 Professor Andy Clark: "Life in the Freezer: Ecology and Adaptation to Low Temperature"
2001 Professor Michael Whitfield: "Mobile Pastures: Microbial Ghosts in the Ocean Machine"
2002 Dr Brian Bayne: "Bivalve Mariculture: Science on the Half Shell"
2003 Dr Tony Rice: "A Crank Little Vessel"
2004 Dr Tim Hunt: "From Sea Urchin to Clam Eggs to the Control of the Cell Cycle"
2005 Professor Peter Herring: "Light in the Depths: the how and why of luminous deep sea animals"
2006 Professor Patrick Holligan: "Determination and Prediction of Ecological Variability in Shelf Seas"
2007 Professor Graham Shimmield: "Has petroleum exploitation and exploration damaged the North Sea?"
2008 Professor John Croxall: "Southern Ocean albatrosses: South Georgia science to global conservation"
2009 Professor Andy Watson: "The ocean sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide: constant or fickle?"
2010 Professor Geoff Boxshall FRS - Natural History Museum, London: "The magnitude of marine biodiversity: towards a quarter of a million species but not enough copepods!!"
2011 Professor John G Field - Marine Research Institute, University of Cape Town: "Looking back in order to project into the future: new developments in marine science"
2012 Professor Jan Pentreath - Trustee of the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science & Plymouth Marine Laboratory Fellow: "Unstable atoms in the oceans: clocks, tracers and DNA"
2013 Professor Hans-Otto Pörtner - Alfred Wegener Institute, Bremerhaven, Germany: "Oceans under climate change: towards an integrated view of organism sensitivities and ecosystem consequences"
2014 Professor Ian Boyd - Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: "Creating a storm or calming the waters – a view from a Chief Scientific Adviser"
2015 Professor Lloyd Peck - British Antarctic Survey: "How well adapted are Antarctic marine species to extreme polar conditions?"
2016 Professor Gideon Henderson - Oxford University: "Metals in seawater: critical; toxic; and changing"
2017 Professor Douglas Wallace - Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada: “Vital Signs: Monitoring the Ocean’s Deep, Breathing in the Labrador Sea.”
2018 Professor Corinne Le Quéré - University of East Anglia: “The Ocean Carbon Cycle in a Changing Climate”
2019 Professor Nicole Dubilier - Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany: "The art of harnessing dark energy: Symbiosis between chemosynthetic bacteria and marine invertebrates"
2020 no lecture
2021 (34th) Professor Edward Boyle - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA: "Tracing anthropogenic lead through the ocean using lead isotopes"
2022 (35th) Professor Heather Koldewey - Zoological Society of London (ZSL): "Science for solutions to save the sea"
2023 (36th) Professor Carol Robinson - University of East Anglia: "Marine microbial respiration – a known unknown"