I’ve reconstructed the history of the Mordell Lectureship, but there are some gaps, which perhaps others can fill. The gap in 1970 might mean that appointment of a lecturer was deferred, but the gap from 1991 to 1997 (if the rules were followed) must have had some lecturers in it. And I’m missing most titles before 1998, when the University Reporter went online.
Update: A source has supplied the missing names of speakers.
Update (2016): Speakers since 2011 now added.
1970 J. W. S. Cassels
1971 C. A. Rogers
1972 Oscar Zariski
1973 Paul Halmos
1974 Michael Atiyah
1975 Fritz Hirzebruch
1976 Kai Lai Chung, Theta functions from Brownian excursions
1977 Gustave Choquet
1978 Jacques Tits, Rigidity
1979 Paul Erdös
1980 Donald J. Lewis
1981 Gilbert Baumslag
1982 Jean Pierre Kahane
1983 S. J. Taylor
1984 André Haefliger
1985 John Coates
1986 Donald Burkholder
1987 Vaughan Jones
1988 Alan Baker
1989 J. A. Green
1990 Alexander Schrijver
1991 Simon Donaldson
1992 Gisbert Wustholz
1993 Nicholas Varopoulos
1994 Jean-Yves Girard
1995 László Lovász
1996 Andrew Wiles
1997 Cliff Taubes
1998 Johan de Jong, Curves over finite fields and Galois representations
1999 Don Zagier, Mock modular forms, Maass modular forms, and true modular forms
2000 Cameron Gordon, The classification of knots
2001 David Aldous, Mathematical probability: some topics we do understand and some we don’t
2002 Yakov Eliashberg, Symplectic field theory: its structure and applications
2003 Mike Hopkins, Algebraic topology and modular forms
2004 Noga Alon, Polynomials in discrete mathematics
2005 Peter Sarnak, The Ramanujan conjecture and its generalizations
2006 Vitaly Bergelson, Ergodic theorems along polynomials: from combinatorial applications to challenges for physicists
2007 Demetrios Christodoulou, Acoustical spacetime geometry and shock formation
2008 Tobias Colding, Geometric PDE
2009 Anatole Katok, KAM and rigidity
2010 Lectureship deferred
2011 Alex Lubotzky, Short presentations of finite groups
2012 Paul Seidel, Categorical dynamics
2014 Alex Eskin, The SL(2,R) action on moduli space
2015 Daniel Spielman, The solution of the Kadison-Singer problem
2016 Dana Scott, Why mathematical proof?
The Mordell Lectureship was established in honor of Louis Mordell, Sadleirian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. He was also an undergraduate at Cambridge, and the New York Times in 1909 had a short item about him:
MORDELL CARRIES HONORS MODESTLY; American Winner of Cambridge Wranglership Admits Being Erratic Student. DECLINED TO HAVE A COACH Only Studied When in the Mood — Believes in Plenty of Exercise and Is Fond of Tennis and Swimming.
Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
June 20, 1909,
THE MARCONI TRANSATLANTIC WIRELESS DISPATCHES
