Professor Davis, a former chair of the department, retired in 1977 after serving the University with great distinction in a career spanning 36 years.  This lecture series is a particularly fitting tribute to Professor Davis who skillfully guided this department and many of the departments in the former College of Arts and Sciences on the path to meaningful research and first-rate graduate education.

Previous lecturers:

Dr. Paul D. Bartlett, Texas Christian University - 1978
Dr. Harry Mark, University of Cincinnati - 1979
Dr. Earl Davie, University of Washington - 1980
Dr. Alan MacDiarmid, University of Pennsylvania - 1981
Dr. James White, Oregon State University - 1982
Dr. Leland Allen, Princeton University - 1983
Dr. Charles Wilkins, University of California, Riverside - 1984
Dr. F. Albert Cotton, Texas A&M University - 1985
Dr. Demetrios P. Papahadjopoulos, University of California Medical School-San Francisco - 1986
Dr. Gilbert Stork, Columbia University - 1987
Dr. Allen J. Bard, University of Texas-Austin - 1988
Dr. Lawrence F. Dahl, University of Wisconsin-Madison - 1989
Dr. Leroy E. Hood, California Institute of Technology - 1989
Dr. John A. Pople, Northwestern University - 1990
Dr. John E. Bercaw, California Institute of Technology - 1992
Dr. K.C. Nicolaou, Scripps Research Institute - 1992
Dr. Stuart M. Lindsey, Arizona State University - 1994
Dr. Warren R. Roper, University of Auckland, New Zealand - 1994
Dr. Michael D. Morris, University of Michigan - 1996
Dr. Malcolm H. Chisholm, Indiana University - 1997
Dr. Steven G. Boxer, Stanford University - 1998
Dr. Michael Fayer, Stanford University - 1998
Dr. John T. Yates Jr., University of Pittsburgh - 1999
Dr. Mostafa A. El-Sayed, Georgia Institute of Technology - 2000
Dr. Martin Head-Gordon, University of California, Berkeley - 2002
Dr. Stacey F. Bent, Stanford University - 2004
Dr. Ronald Breslow, Columbia University - 2006
Dr. Nancy Makri, University of Illinois, Urbana - 2006
Dr. Steven Zimmerman, University of Illinois, Urbana - 2007
Dr. Paul Barbara, University of Texas - 2008
Dr. Tobin Marks, Northwestern University - 2008
Dr. Charles Campbell, University of Washington - 2009
Dr. Sharon Hammes-Schiffer, Penn State - 2010
Dr. Xiaoliang S. Xie, Harvard University - 2011
Dr. Donald G. Truhlar, University of Minnesota - 2012
Dr. Christopher B. Murray, University of Pennsylvania - 2013
Dr. Peidong Yang, University of California Berkeley - 2013
Dr. Edward Sargent, University of Toronto - 2016
Dr. Mark Hersam, Northwest University, IL - 2017 
Dr. George Schatz,  Northwest University, IL - 2018 
Dr. Sandra Rosenthal, Vanderbilt University, TN -2019 
Dr. Grace Han, Brandeis University – 2020  
Dr. Glenn Frederickson, Univ of California, Santa Barbara - 2023