The Edgar Fahs Smith Lecture was established in 1929 to honor the first modern chemist at the University of Pennsylvania, who was a former Provost of the University and President of the American Chemical Society. This lectureship is the oldest lectureship in the country under the joint sponsorship of a university and a section of the ACS.
Past speakers:
1929 Clarence W. Balke, Fansteel Products, Inc.
1930 Charles A.Kraus, Brown
1931 N.V. Sidgwick, Lincoln College, UK
1932 Louis Kahlenberg, Wisconsin
1933 James B. Conant, Harvard
1934 Hugh S. Taylor, Princeton
1935 Colin G. Fink, Columbia
1936 Julius O. Stieglitz, Chicago
1937 Charles H. Herty, Ind Cmtee of Savannah
1938 Roger Adams, Illinois
1939 George B. Kistiatowski, Harvard
1940 Per K. Frolich, Esso Laboratories
1941 Arthur A,. Blanchard, MIT
1942 Harold C. Urey, Columbia
1943 No award given
1944 No award given
1945 No award given
1946 Theodor Svedburg, Upsala
1947 Wendell M. Stanley, Rockefeller Institute
1948 Carl S. Marvel, Illinois
1949 Linus D. Pauling, CalTech
1950 Edward C. Kendall, Mayo Foundation
1951 Herman I. Schlesinger, Chicago
1952 Paul D. Bartlett, Harvard
1953 Joel H. Hildebrand, California, Berkeley
1954 Henry Eyring, Utah
1955 Melvin Calvin, California, Berkeley
1956 Paul M. Doty, Harvard
1957 Peter J.W, Debye, Cornell
1958 Vincent du Vigneaud, Cornell Medical College
1959 Robert B. Woodward, Harvard
1960 Glenn T. Seaborg, California, Berkeley
1961 Paul J. Flory, Mellon Institute
1962 Herbert C. Brown, Purdue
1963 Henry Taube, Stanford
1964 John T. Edsall, Harvard
1965 I.M. Kolthoff, Minnesota
1966 Carl Djerassi, Stanford
1967 Francis T. Bacon, Energy Conservation Ltd
1968 Cyrus Levinthal, MIT
1969 Elias J. Corey, Harvard
1970 John D. Roberts, CalTech
1971 Lawrence F. Dahl, Wisconsin
1972 No award given
1973 No award given
1974 Gerald M. Edelman, Rockefeller University
1975 Nelson J. Leonard , Illinois
1976 F.A. Cotton, Texas A&M
1977 Jerrold Meinwald, Cornell
1978 George C. Pimentel, NSF; California, Berkeley
1979 Daniel E. Koshland, Jr., California, Berkeley
1980 F.S. Rowland, California, Irvine
1981 Earl Muetterties, California, Berkeley
1982 Gilbert Stork, Columbia
1983 Sir George Porter, The Royal Inst, England
1984 Harry B. Gray, CalTech
1985 Christopher Walsh, MIT
1986 Nicholas J. Turro , Columbia
1987 Richard N. Zare, Stanford
1988 Samuel Danishefsky, Yale
1989 Daniel H. Rich, Wisconsin, Madison
1990 Robert G. Bergman, California, Berkeley
1991 Rudolf A. Marcus, CalTech
1992 Peter G. Schultz, California, Berkeley
1993 JoAnne Stubbe, MIT
1994 Tobin J. Marks, Northwestern
1995 Stephen J. Lippard, MIT
1996 Richard R. Ernst, ETH, Zürich
1997 Martin Karplus, Harvard
1998 Robert H. Grubbs, CalTech
1999 Gabor A. Samorjai, California, Berkeley
2000 K. Barry Sharpless, Scripps Research Inst.
2001 K. C. Nicolaou, Scripps Research Inst.
2002 Graham Fleming, California, Berkeley
2003 Alexander Pines, California, Berkeley
2004 Carlos Bustamante, California, Berkeley
2005 Peter G. Wolynes, California, San Diego
2006 Robert G. Bergman, California, Berkeley
2007 David Tirrell, CalTech
2008 Chad A. Mirkin, Northwestern
2009 A. Paul Alivisatos California, Berkeley
2010 Ronald Breslow Columbia
2011 Ada Yonath Weizmann Institute
2012 William Miller California, Berkeley
2013 Josef Michl, Colorado
2014 Carolyn Bertozzi, California, Berkeley
2015 Ben Widom, Cornell
2016 George C. Schatz, Northwestern
2017 Peter Rossky, Rice University
2018 John Hartwig, California, Berkeley
2019 Amy C. Rosenzweig, Northwestern University
2020 Barbara Imperiali, MIT
2023 Squire Booker, Pennsylvania State University
Information on the ACS Philadelphia Section can be found here.