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Annual Lecture

Each year our lecture gives an opportunity for a guest speaker to discuss science and engineering advocacy.

Find below summaries of our lectures back to 1987, and links to recordings of some of the more recent events.

Registration is open for CaSE's 2024 Annual Lecture

This years lecture will be delivered by Ilan Gur, CEO of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) on December 12th.

2023 – Prof Dame Angela McLean, UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser

Scientific advice to government

2022 – Kim Shillinglaw, Chair Discovery Decade Project

We need to talk about science

2021 – Dr Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director of the National Science Foundation

Placing science and innovation at the heart of the US and UK’s future

2020 – Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, Chief Executive UKRI

The research and innovation system: fuelling an inclusive knowledge economy

2019 – Sir Patrick Vallance, Government Chief Scientific Adviser

Embedding Research in the Heart of Government

2018 – Prof Al-Khalili, Prof Dame Wendy Hall & Prof Alan Winfield

Making Artificial Intelligence A Reality

2017 – Hilary Benn MP, Chair of the Brexit Select Committee

Britain’s Place in the World

2016 – CaSE's 30th Anniversary Event

Shaping the Future of Science

2015 – Jo Johnson, Universities & Science Minister

Making the UK the best place in the world to do science

2014 – Prof Ellen Stofan, NASA Chief Scientist

NASA’s Journey to Mars

2013 – Prof Anne Glover CBE, EU Chief Scientific Advisor

What’s the use of evidence?

2012 – Lord Heseltine

An Industrial Strategy

2011- John Denham MP, Shadow Business Secretary

Science and Growth

2010 – Lord Drayson, Adam Afriyie MP, Evan Harris MP

Pre-election debate on Science and Engineering

2009 – Prof John Beddington, Government Chief Scientific Advisor

Science in Government: Challenges for the 21st Century

2007 – David Willetts MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, University and Skills

Science and Education

2006 – Lord May of Oxford, former President of the Royal Society and former Government Chief Scientific Adviser

How to stimulate creativity and how to stifle it

2005 – Professor Sir David King, the UK Government's Chief Scientific Adviser

An insider’s view of science in Government

2004 – Rt Hon Chris Patten, Former Governor of Hong Kong, and Chancellor of Oxford and Newcastle Universities

Research – The European Challenge

2003 – Howard Dalton, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
2002 – Sir Gareth Roberts, President of Wolfson College, Oxford, and of the Science Council
2001 – Professor Sir Harold Kroto FRS, Nobel Laureate, member of the SBS Advisory Council

The Internet and Science, Technology and Engineering Education

2000 – Dr Mike Dexter, Director of the Wellcome Trust

Where would UK science be without the charities?

1999 – Dr Andrew Mackenzie, Group Vice President of Technology at BP Amoco

Science, energy and progress

1998 – John Redwood MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry

British Science and Industry: What should the Government do?

1997 – Margaret Beckett MP, President of the Board of Trade
1996 – Ian Taylor MP MBE, Minister for Science

British Science: a bright outlook for the future

1995 – Sir Derek Roberts CBE FRS FEng, Provost of UCL

Science: the roles of foresight and hindsight

1993 – John Smith MP, Leader of the Opposition
1992 – Prof J.M.Howie FRSE

A British Baccalaureate: some thoughts from Scotland

1989 – The Rt Hon Michael Heseltine MP

Paying for Science

1988 – Lord Adrian FRS, Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and Member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology
1987 – Sir James Lighthill, Provost of UCL