The Silliman Memorial lectures series has been published by Yale University since 1901. The lectures were established by the university on the foundation of a bequest of $80,000, left in 1883 by Augustus Ely Silliman, in memory of his mother, Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman. Hepsa Ely was the daughter of the Reverend David Ely, a member of the Yale College Class of 1769. She was married to Gold Selleck Silliman, brother of Professor Benjamin Silliman and a 1796 graduate of Yale College. She was the mother of two sons, August Ely Silliman and Benjamin Douglas Silliman. Benjamin graduated from Yale College in 1824.
The lectures are designed to illustrate the presence and providence, the wisdom and goodness of God, as manifested in the natural and moral world. The testator's belief was that any orderly presentation of the facts of nature or history contributed to the foundation's purpose more effectively than any attempt to emphasize the elements of doctrine or creed; and he therefore provided that lectures on dogmatic or polemical theology should be excluded from its scope, and that instead the subjects should be selected from the domains of natural science and history, with special prominence given to astronomy, chemistry, geology, and anatomy.see preface p. v of
Lecturers (partial list)
1902-03 Thomson, Joseph John - Electricity and Matter (1904) 1903-04 Sherrington, Charles Scott - The Integrative Action of the Nervous System (1906) 1904-05 Rutherford, Ernest - Radioactive Transformations (1906) 1905-06 No Lecture 1906-07 Nernst, Walter - Experimental and Theoretical Applications of Thermodynamics to Chemistry (1911, republished 1913) 1907-08 Bateson, William - Problems of Genetics (1913) 1908-09 Penck, Albrecht 1909-10 Campbell, William Wallace - Stellar Motions (1913) 1910-11 Arrhenius, Svante August - Theories of Solutions (1912) 1911-12 Verworn, Max - Irritability (1908) 1912-13 Osler, William - The Evolution of Modern Medicine (1921) 1913-14 Iddings, Joseph Paxson et al. - The Problem of Volcanism (1914) 1913-14 Lindgren, Waldemar et al. - Problems of American Geology (1915) 1915-16 No Lecture 1916-17 Haldane, John Scott - Organism and Environment as Illustrated by the Physiology of Breathing Respiration (1917) 1917-18 Dana, Barrell et al. - A Century of Science in America (Dana Commemorative Lectures) (1922) 1918-19 No Lecture 1919-20 Hadamard, Jacques Solomon - Lecture on Cauchy's Problem in Linear Partial Differential Equations (1923) 1920-21 Cumont, Franz - After Life in Roman Paganism (1922) 1920-21 Rettger, Leo Frederick - A Treatise on the Transformation of the Intestinal Flora with Special Reference to the Implantation of Bacillus Acidophillus (1921) 1921-22 Pirquet, Clemens - An Outline of the Pirquet System of Nutrition (1922) 1922-23 Krogh, August - The Anatomy and Physiology of Capillaries (1922, rev. ed. 1927) 1923-24 Bohr, Niels 1924-25 Morgan, Thomas Hunt - The Theory of the Gene (1926) 1925-26 Lewis, Gilbert Newton - The Anatomy of Science (1926) 1926-27 Andrews, Ernest Clayton 1927-28 Henderson, Lawrence Joseph - Blood: A Study in General Physiology (1928) 1928-30 No Lecture 1930-31 Wieland, Heinrich Otto - On the Mechanism of Oxidation (1932) 1931-32 Richardson, Owen Willans - Molecular Hydrogen and its Spectrum (1934) 1932-33 No Lecture 1933-34 Daly, Reginald Aldworth - The Changing World of the Ice Age (1934) 1934-35 Spemann, Hans - Induction (1938) 1935-36 Hubble, Edwin Powell - The Realm of the Nebulae (1936, repub. 1982) 1936-37 Watson, David M. Seares - Paleontology and Modern Biology (1951) 1937-38 No Lecture 1938-39 Chibnall, Albert Charles - Protein Metabolism in the Plant (1939) 1939-40 Goldschmidt, Richard B. - The Material Basis of Evolution (1940, repub. 1982) 1940-45 No Lecture 1945-46 Lawrence, Ernest; Pauling, Linus; Beadle, George; Stanley, Wendell - The Centennial of the Sheffield Scientific School (George Alfred Baitsell ed.) (1950) 1946-47 Cohn, Edwin Joseph 1947-48 Beadle, George Wells 1948-49 Harrison, Ross Granville - Organization and Development of the Embryo (1969, edited by Sally Widens) 1949-50 Fermi, Enrico - Elementary Particles (1951, paper 1961) 1950-51 Urey, Harold Clayton - The Planets: Their Origin and Development (1952, paper 1961) 1951-52 Pettersson, Hans - The Ocean Floor (1954) 1952-53 Cori, Carl Ferdinand; Dunning, John Ray; Suits, Chauncey Guy 1953-54 Granit, Ragner - Receptors and Sensory Perception (1955) 1954-55 Spence, Kenneth Wartenbe - Behavior Theory and Conditioning (1956) 1955-56 von Neumann, John - The Computer and the Brain (1958, paper 1979) 1956-57 Seaborg, Glenn Theodore The Transuranium Elements (1958) 1957-58 No Lecture 1958-59 Dobzhansky, Theodosius - Mankind Evolving (1962) 1959-60 Rubey, William Walden 1960-61 Dubos, Rene Jules - Man Adapting (1965, paper 1967, enlarged ed. c & p 1990) 1961-62 No Lecture 1962-63 Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan - Ellipsoidal Figures of Equilibrium (1969) 1963-64 Leakey, Louis S.B.; Todd, Sir Alexander 1964-65 Mulliken, Robert Sanderson 1965-66 Rushton, William Albert Hugh 1966-67 Wilkinson, Denys Haigh 1966-67 Lectures on the Centennial of the Peabody Museum - Evolution and Environment (Ellen Drake, ed) (1968) 1967-68 Bronowski, Jacob - On the Origins of Knowledge and Imagination (1979) 1968-69 Lederberg, Joshua 1969-70 Bishop, et al. The Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages (1971, ed. K.K. Turekian) 1970-74 No Lecture 1974-75 Kuffler, Stephen 1975-76 Jacob, François 1976-77 Cox, Allen 1977-78 Weinberg, Steven 1977-78 Spitzer, Lyman - Searching Between the Stars (1982) 1978-79 Kornberg, Arthur 1979-80 McLaren, Anne - Germ Cells and Soma: A New Look at an Old Problem (1981) 1980-81 Hoffmann, Roald; Gajdusek, D. Carleton 1981-82 Wetherill, George 1982-83 Pilbeam, David 1983-84 Thorne, Kip - Black Holes: The Membrane Paradigm (with Richard Price and Douglas Macdonald) (1986) 1984-85 Klug, Aaron 1985-86 Corey, E.J. 1986-87 Kandel, Eric R. 1987-89 No Lecture 1989-90 Nüsslein-Volhard, Christiane 1989-90 Gel'fand, Israïl Moyseyovich 1990-92 No Lecture 1992-93 Bromley, David Allan 1993-94 No Lecture 1994-95 Peebles, Philip J. E. - Cosmogony: How did Galaxies Form?; Mass Puzzles and the Past and Future of Our Expanding Universe 1995-96 Hopfield, John J. - Neural Networks: Brains and Computers 1996-97 Shoemaker, Eugene - Near-Earth Asteroids and Comets" 1997-98 No Lecture 1998-99 Pierre-Gilles de Gennes - From Rice to Snow: Problems of Granular Matter 1998-99 Karplus, Martin - Proteins: The Fourth Dimension 1999-01 No Lecture 2001-02 Leakey, Meave - African Origins -Sole Survivors of a Diverse Past 2001-02 Allman, John - Evolving Brains 2001-02 Cavalli-Storza, Luigi - Genes, Peoples and Languages 2001-02 Cech, Thomas - The RNA World and the Origins of Life - Life Before Yale (Long Before) 2001-02 Schopf, J William - Discovery of Earth's Earliest Fossils - Solutions to Darwin's Dilemma 2001-02 Wasserburg, G.J. - From Small Rocks to Big Stars and the Early Universe - a Study of Cosmochemical Immodesty 2002-03 Anderson, James G. - Chemistry and the Earth: Bridging Electronic Structure and Climate; The Nature of the Chemical Bond in Transition: Prediction of Barrier Heights; Coupling of Chemistry and Climate: Eocene, Present and Future 2003-12 No Lecture 2012-13 Faber, Sandra - Genesis: The Modern Story 2013-14 Banaji, Mahzarin - Group Love 2014-15 McKenzie, Dan - Plates and Earthquakes: Why We Expect a Million Deaths this Century 2016-17 Alley, Richard B - Sea-Level Rise: Inconvenient, or Unmanageable? 2017-18 Richards-Kortum, Rebecca - Essential Solutions and Technologies to Eliminate Preventable Newborn Death in Africa 2018-19 Reich, David - Who We Are and How We Got Here; Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past 2019-20 No Lecture 2022-23 James Hudspeth - "The Physics and Physiology of Hearing: How the Ear's Works Works" 2023-24 Elaine Fuchs - "Our Body's Stem Cells: How They Cope with Stress and Learn from Their Experiences" 2024-25 Cori Bargmannn - "One Brain, Many Behaviors: The Fascinating World of Internal States" 2024-25 Wendy Freeman - "Testing Models of Our Universe with the James Webb Space Telescope"
The year given is sometimes that of the publication of the book, rather than that in which the lectures were given.
See also Dwight H. Terry Lectureship
Notes
External links
The Silliman Memorial Lectures Series The Silliman Lectures at Yale University