Harveian Oration

The Harveian Oration is a yearly lecture held at the Royal College of Physicians of London. It was instituted in 1656 by William Harvey, discoverer of the systemic circulation. Harvey made financial provision for the college to hold an annual feast on St. Luke's Day (18 October) at which an oration would be delivered in Latin to praise the college's benefactors and to exhort the Fellows and Members of this college to search and study out the secrets of nature by way of experiment. Until 1865, the Oration was given in Latin, as Harvey had specified, and known as the Oratio anniversaria; but it was thereafter spoken in English. Many of the lectures were published in book form.

Lecturers (incomplete list)

1656–1700

1701–1800

1801–1900

1901–2000

2001–present

  • 2001 David Warrell, "To search and Studdy out the secrett of Tropical Diseases by way of Experiment"
  • 2002 Sir Cyril Chantler The Second Greatest benefit to Mankind?
  • 2003 Sir Paul Nurse, The Great Ideas of Biology
  • 2004 Sir Keith Peters, Exceptional Matters
  • 2005 Sir Colin Blakemore, In Celebration of Cerebration
  • 2006 Sir Michael Marmot, Health in an unequal world – social circumstances, biology and disease
  • 2007 Sir Mark Brian Pepys, Science and Serendipity
  • 2008 Sir Michael David Rawlins, De Testimonio: On the evidence for decisions about the use of therapeutic interventions
  • 2009 Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Prevention is better than cure
  • 2010 Sir John Bell, Redefining Disease
  • 2011 Iona Heath, Divided we fail
  • 2012 Sir Richard Peto, Halving premature death
  • 2013 Dame Kay Davies, The era of genomic medicine
  • 2014 Sir John Gurdon, Stem cells and cell replacement
  • 2015 Sir Mark Walport, Medicine, science and values
  • 2016 Sir Stephen O'Rahilly, Some observations on the causes and consequences of obesity
  • 2017 Chris Whitty Triumphs and challenges in a world shaped by medicine
  • 2018 Mary Dixon-Woods Improving quality and safety in health care
  • 2019 Sir John Burn Prediction and prevention in the genomic era
  • 2020 Peter J. Ratcliffe, Elucidation of molecular oxygen-sensing mechanisms in human cells: implications for medicine
  • 2021 Jonathan Van-Tam Moving forwards, understanding backwards: respiratory virus vaccines, therapeutics, and public health policy
  • 2022 Dame Anne Johnson Pandemic HIV and its legacy for medicine and global health

See also