User:Viewfromthebay/Cawthron Lectures

The tradition of an annual public lecture to commemorate Thomas Cawthron began in 1917 and continues today. The first in the series was "The aims and ideals of the Cawthron Institute" by Thomas Easterfield, one of the founding professors of Victoria University and soon to be appointed Cawthron Institute's first Director. Two years later the third lecture was delivered by notable New Zealand botanist Leonard Cockayne. Other lecturers include Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck) on "The Coming of the Māori" (1925), Ernest Lord Rutherford ( "Electricity and Matter" (1928) and Sir Howard Florey "Penicillin" (1944) . Not all were about science, for example Sir Edmund Hillary on "The New Zealand Antarctic Expedition" (1958) . The list includes several Governors-General: Lord Bledisloe (1932), Viscount Cobham (1960) , Dame Catherine Tizard (1991) , as well as the scientist and former Governor of South Australia Sir Mark Oliphant (1992).

The 76th Lecture was delivered in 2019 by Professor Gideon Henderson of Oxford University: "Taking it back: removal of CO2 from the atmosphere to limit climate change" after an opening lecture by Cawthron’s Dr Susie Wood on the "Lakes 380" project.

Most of the lectures are available from the Cawthron website in pdf format or, since 2013, as video recordings.