List of Speakers and Lectures
October 1999 – March 2012
Sessions: 198 – 210
| Year | Speaker | Topic |
| 1999 | 198th Session | |
| 7/10 | Sir Kenneth Calman | Graham: Risk and its communication |
| 21/10 | Prof John Barrow | Kelvin: Life in the Universe |
| 04/11 | Winifred Ewing | A suitable job for a woman |
| 18/11 | Sir Malcolm Rifkind | Blessed are the peacemakers |
| 16/12 | Prof John Haldane | Philosophy in this century and next |
| 2000 | ||
| 13/01 | Donald McKinnon | Forth and Clyde Canal-a Nation divided |
| 27/01 | Prof Ronald Mavor | Time and the Arts |
| 10/02 | Jimmie MacGregor | An Arctic Journey |
| 24/02 | Prof Peter Oppenheimer | What Price Progress? |
| 199th Session | ||
| 05/10 | Prof Susan Greenfield | The private life of the Brain |
| 19/10 | Frances Cairncross | The death of distance |
| 02/11 | John Peterson | The US Presidential Election |
| 16/11 | Dr Robert Grant | Fiction and Meaning |
| 14/12 | Prof Malcolm Longair | Kelvin: Maxwell, Planck and the discovery of Quanta |
| 2001 | ||
| 11/01 | Prof Nigel Thorp | The ass and the coxcomb: reflections on Whistler and Ruskin |
| 25/01 | Prof Edwin Morgan | Arts: God, Fate and the Devil: Some Philosophical Thoughts on Burns |
| 14/02 | ||
| 22/02 | Dr Richard Holloway | The wound of religion |
| 22/03 | Norman Lebrecht | The Meaning of Mahler |
| 200th Session | ||
| 04/10 | Dr Callum Brown | The Death of European Christian Culture 1801 – 2001 |
| 18/10 | Prof Roderick Gailbraith | Two Centuries of Flight |
| 01/11 | Prof Tom Devine | Scotland’s century |
| 15/11 | Prof Duncan MacMillan | An Exchange of Ideas – Two Centuries of Art and Philosophy in Scotland |
| 29/11 | Prof Hugh Pennington | A Century of Food Poisoning |
| 13/12 | Richard Rampton, QC | Holocaust Denial – The Trial of the Century |
| 2002 | Clicks and Mortals | |
| 17/01 | Tommy Sheridan MSP | A Century of Socialism |
| 31/01 | Prof Richard Susskind | |
| 14/02 | Sir James Black | The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Brief History of Drug Invention |
| 28/02 | Dr Gavin Stamp | Sir Giles Gilbert Scott: Architect of the Century |
| 14/03 | Prof Leslie Barr | The Society and Nobel Laureates |
| 201st Session | ||
| 10/10 | Dame Ruth Deech | The Future of Fertility |
| 24/10 | Prof Richard Dawkins | The Evolution of the Future |
| 07/11 | Bridget McConnell | Scotland’s Cultural Future |
| 21/11 | Prof Ian Fells | The Future of Renewable Energy |
| 05/12 | Tam Dalyell, MP | The Future of the Middle East |
| 19/12 | Dr Janet Radcliffe Richards | The Future of Feminism |
| 2003 | ||
| 16/01 | Lord Sutherland | Ideologies and Values in the Twenty-First Century |
| 30/01 | Kay Hampton | A Fairer Future |
| 13/02 | Prof Quintin McKellar | The Future of Animal Welfare |
| 27/02 | Heather Reid | Weather Forecasting for the 21st Century |
| 13/03 | Professor Sir Roderick MacSween | The Future of Medical Care |
| 27/03 | Derek Ogg, QC | Do Human Rights Have a Future? |
| 202nd Session | ||
| 08/10 | Otillia Saxl | The Science of the Small – Fact, Fantasy and the Future of Nanotechnology |
| 22/10 | Prof Jim Hough | Ripples from the Dark Side of the Universe |
| 05/11 | Prof Ted Cowan | 5/11 and the Fallout from 1603 |
| 19/11 | Barry K Winetrobe | The evolution of devolution |
| 03/12 | The Very Rev. Dr. Finlay Macdonald | The Moderator’s Tale |
| 17/12 | Dr Nigel McMillan | Seeing Through You: the Latest Developments in Medical Scanning |
| 2004 | ||
| 14/01 | Dr Robert Dickson | Global Warming and the Northern Seas |
| 28/01 | Dr Sheena McDonald | Sack the Clown – Governance, the media and the citizen |
| 11/02 | Prof Ian Wilmut | The Future of Cloning |
| 25/02 | Prof Simon Blackburn | Fictions, Inventions and Ethics |
| 10/03 | Dr Andrew Cubie | Academic Rigour or Social Policy – Does Society Care about Education? |
| 24/03 | Prof Neil Spurway | Science and Religion in the 3rd Millennium |
| 203nd Session | ||
| 06/10 | Derek Ogg, QC | Just Law |
| 20/10 | Keith Hellawell | Drugs in Society |
| 03/11 | Graham Cairns Smith | Portrait of a truly primitive gene |
| 17/11 | Prof Craig Sharp | Animal Athletes: Feats of Animal Physiology |
| 01/12 | Dr Mary Midgley | Visions and Values: a western view of global ecology |
| 08/12 | Prof John Burland | Propping up Pisa: saving the leaning tower |
| 2005 | ||
| 12/01 | Prof Jeff Maxwell | GM Crops: Parameters of Acceptance and Rejection |
| 26/01 | Prof Brian Ashcroft | New Wealth for an Old Nation: how others see us |
| 09/02 | Prof Sir Michael Bond | Forty Years in Pain |
| 23/02 | James MacMillan | Music – the most spiritual of the Arts |
| 09/03 | Suzi Leather | Test Tube Babies and Embryo Research – the facts, the ethics, the future |
| 25/03 | Dick Wolfson | Laughter – the elixir of life |
| 204th Session | ||
| 05/10 | Prof Haleh Afshar | Women’s Rights and Islam: Can Things change? |
| 19/10 | Dr Martin Smith | Drifting continents and the Asian tsunami |
| 02/11 | Prof John Smith | Scientific Challenges for Natural Medicines |
| 16/11 | Prof Sir Michael Atiyah | Einstein and the nature of space |
| 30/11 | Sandy Stoddart | The Sartorial Imperative – costume, drapery, and the decline of the statue |
| 14/12 | Lord McCluskey | Whose Law? – Religious and Legal Rights |
| 2006 | ||
| 11/01 | Prof Kevin Warwick | Hybrid Intelligence – combining human and machine brains |
| 25/01 | Dr Carol Craig | The Shriek of the Sea-Mew – negativity of Scottish culture and consciousness |
| 08/02 | Prof Steven Mithen | The Origins of Music and Language |
| 22/02 | Billy McAneney | Africa: what does the future hold? |
| 08/03 | Prof Tim Crane | Can science explain everything about consciousness? |
| 22/03 | Mark O’Neill | Kelvingrove in the 21st Century: Towards a New Epistemology of Museums |
| 205th Session | ||
| 04/10 | Dr David Reilly | Healing in a Post-Industrial Age – emerging from 20th century medicine |
| 18/10 | Prof Lalage Brown | Women, Words and the World |
| 01/11 | Dr Alison Elliot | Moderation in a World of Extremes |
| 15/11 | Prof Brian Caddy | Forensic Science – servant of the legal process? |
| 29/11 | Prof Colin McLean | The Strange Behaviour of Investors |
| 13/12 | Prof Alistair McGrath | The Twilight of Atheism? Reflections on the Future of Religion and its Alternatives |
| 2007 | ||
| 10/01 | Dr Ken Skeldon | Debunking the Moon Hoax Theories – one small step, many giant myths |
| 24/01 | Prof Philip Hanlon | Threats to Public Health in the 21st Century – Can current thinking cope? |
| 07/02 | Prof Patrick O’Reilly | Decoding ‘The Da Vinci Code |
| 21/02 | Prof Simon Conway-Morris | How Evolution Dances to the Song of Creation |
| 07/03 | Prof John Butt | Does Classical Music still exist? |
| 21/03 | Prof A C Grayling | Defending the Enlightenment |
| 206th Session | ||
| 03/10 | Michael Fry | State of the Union – how 1707 led to 2007 |
| 17/10 | Prof Geoffrey Boulton | What is happening to Planet Earth; and what might we do about it? |
| 31/10 | Prof Aubrey Manning | The Animals and Ourselves |
| 14/11 | David Lorimer | The frontiers of science, consciousness and spirituality |
| 28/11 | Stephen Law | The war for children’s minds |
| 12/12 | Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell | What’s going on in the Universe |
| 2008 | ||
| 09/01 | Prof John Wallace | Music and Freedom |
| 23/01 | Prof Sir Alec Jeffreys | DNA fingerprinting and beyond |
| 06/02 | Rt Hon Elish Angiolini QC | Scots Law – What’s so special about us? |
| 20/02 | Prof Neil McKeganey | Welcome to Scotland – drug capital of Europe |
| 05/03 | Prof Wendy Hall | Towards a Science of the World Wide Web |
| 19/03 | Prof Allyson Pollock | The NHS – implications for patients and public as Scotland and England diverge |
| 207th Session | ||
| 08/10 | Prof Michael Burton | Face recognition: surveillance, security, and the limits of human perception |
| 16/10 | Baroness Shirley Williams | Politicians and principle |
| 22/10 | Prof Colin McInnes | Engineering, energy, and the environment: the long view |
| 05/11 | Sir Craig Reedie | Do international sporting events bring advantages to the host city? |
| 19/11 | Prof Max Taylor | How can terrorism be understood and countered? |
| 03/12 | Prof George Newlands | Faith, hospitality, and human rights |
| 17/12 | Prof Murdo Macdonald | Scotland’s art from prehistory to the present: the Highland dimension |
| 2009 | ||
| 14/01 | Prof Anna Dominiczak | Genes, proteins, and patients |
| 28/01 | Dr Catherine Smith | The Dignity of Man – why Burns is loved |
| 11/02 | Prof Lewis Wolpert | Belief and the evolution of religion |
| 25/02 | Dr Andrew McLennan | Inside Barlinnie: the first twenty-four hours |
| 11/03 | Dr Martin Hendry | Cosmology: Why are we here? |
| 25/03 | Prof Richard Cogdell | What can we learn from photosynthesis about |
| 208th Session | ||
| 07/10 | Prof. Jane Dawson | Knox, Calvin and Scotland: the creation of a protestant nation |
| 21/10 | Prof.Walter Humes | Education, citizenship and democracy: the threat of corporate culture |
| 04/11 | Prof. Steve Jones | Why Darwin was right and the creationists are wrong |
| 18/11 | Prof. Sue Black | Speaking for the dead: forensic anthropology in our modern world |
| 25/11 | Prof. Sir Martin Evans | Mice, men and medicine |
| 02/12 | Prof. Simon Garrod | The new science of social interaction |
| 16/12 | Dr J Ian S Robertson | Operatic medicine: doctors in opera |
| 2010 | ||
| 13/01 | Mr Jim Mackinnon | From Scara Brae to sustainable communities |
| 27/01 | Prof. Sir Alfred Cuschieri | Operating from images |
| 10/02 | Dame Lynne Brindley | The role of national libraries in the 21st century |
| 24/02 | Prof. Jan McDonald | A business unworthy of a woman? The rise of the female performer on the British stage |
| 10/03 | Mr Jonathan Aitken | Reforming our prisons: purposes and practicalities |
| 24/03 | Prof. Anne Glover | Everyone likes a challenge – is rapid, man-made climate change the biggest one yet? |
| 209th Session | ||
| 06/10 | Prof. Raymond Tallis | Aping mankind. Darwinism, yes. Darwinitis, no. |
| 20/10 | Prof. Niall Ferguson | The 1970s in historical perspective |
| 03/11 | Rt Hon Jack McConnell MSP | Has Devolution improved Scotland’s place in the world? |
| 17/11 | Mr Harry Reid | Why we should be grateful to Luther, Calvin and Knox |
| 01/12 | Prof. Roddy MacSween | Lister |
| 15/12 | Prof. Roy Burdon | Culture fusion: art meets science – science meets art |
| 2011 | ||
| 12/01 | Dr Rob Maslen | Fantasy from the front: Mervyn Peake and the problem of art in wartime |
| 26/01 | Dame Sue Ion | 21st century energy challenges: fuel for thought |
| 09/02 | Dr Louise Richardson | Understanding terrorism |
| 23/08 | Dr Stuart McDonald | Procurement of cadavers by anatomists in Glasgow in the early 19th century |
| 09/03 | Dr John Purser | Scotland’s landscape as music – an aesthetic fantasy or a presentreality |
| 23/03 | Prof Chick Wilson | Mysterious cases of misbehaving molecules |
| 210th Session | ||
| 05/10 | Prof Gordon Campbell | The King James Bible: language and literature |
| 19/10 | Prof Chris Stringer | The origin of our spoecies |
| 02/11 | Dr Victoria Crowe | Inspiration and process-the creative journey |
| 16/11 | The Rt Hon George Reid | Getting to yes |
| 30/11 | Prof Chris Frith | What is consciousness for? |
| 14/12 | Dr Jean Venables | The importance of water and climate change in food production |
| 2012 | ||
| 11/01 | John Donaldson | Grand Designs- Stirling 1540 |
| 25/01 | Shami Chakrabati | Common values-the Human Rights Act: what we have to lose? |
| 08/02 | Prof Sir John Burn | Twins, genes and stem cells: in search of self |
| 22/02 | Prof Dorothy H Crawford | Microbes and us: an illustrated talk on how microbes shaped our history |
| 07/03 | Dr Leonard Esakowitz | Why take photographs? |
| Members | Dr June Neilson | The Antonine Wall: a wall too far? |
| Talks | Dick Philbrick | Employee ownership:path to prosperity and an anti-dote to alienation? |
| 21/03 | Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve | Do we need to rethink press freedom? |
| 211th Session | ||
