Richard C. Lord Lecturers

The Richard C. Lord Lecture is an annual event sponsored by the MIT Department of Chemistry and the G. R. Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory to honor a scientist who has made important contributions to the field of spectroscopy.

Below is a list of our esteemed Richard C. Lord Lecturers.

  • 2024–2025 Marsha Lester (University of Pennsylvania)
  • 2019–2020 Naomi Halas (Rice University)
  • 2017–2018 Stephen Boxer (Stanford)
  • 2016–2017 Jun Ye (University of Colorado)
  • 2015–2016 Paul L. McEuen (Cornell)
  • 2014–2015 Mostafa A. El-Sayed (Georgia Tech)
  • 2013–2014 James Fujimoto (MIT) 
  • 2012–2013 Erich Ippen (MIT)
  • 2011–2012 Stefan Hell (Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences)
  • 2010–2011 Wolfgang Ketterle (MIT)
  • 2009–2010 Michael Feld (MIT)
  • 2008–2009 Mildred Dresselhaus (MIT)
  • 2007–2008 Graham Fleming (UC Berkeley)
  • 2006–2007 John Hall (JILA)
  • 2005–2006 Robert Field (MIT) 
  • 2004–2005 Watt Webb (Cornell)
  • 2003–2004 Britton Chance (University of Pennsylvania)
  • 2002–2003 Norman Ramsey (Harvard) 
  • 2001–2002 Steven Chu (Stanford)
  • 2000–2001 Daniel Kleppner (MIT) 
  • 1999–2000 Theodor Hänsch (Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics)
  • 1998–1999 William Phillips (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
  • 1997–1998 William Klemperer (Harvard)
  • 1996–1997 Carl Lineberger (University of Colorado and JILA)
  • 1995–1996 Richard Zare (Stanford)
  • 1994–1995 Charles Townes (UC Berkeley)
  • 1993–1994 Alexander Pines (UC Berkeley)
  • 1992–1993 Takeshi Oka (University of Chicago)