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.
Contents
Lecturers (incomplete list)
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
2023 Sir Patrick Vallance, The importance of integration – some observations from the clinic, academia, industry and government
2024 Avan Aihie Sayer, From bench to bedside and beyond: new horizons for translational ageing research
2025 Professor John Feehally, Nephrology – an exciting journey from birth to maturity