The Friends of the University of Alberta provide a number of lecture series including:
Henry Marshall Tory Lectures
Named after one of the founders and the first president of the University of Alberta, the Henry Marshall Tory Lecture is a free public lecture featuring outstanding local, national and international speakers, to engage the broader community on academic and societal topics while providing a connection between the community and the University.
At the University’s first convocation address in 1908, President Henry Marshall Tory insisted that the University be connected “as closely as possible to the life of the people,” and that the “uplifting of the whole people shall be its final goal.” Tory closed his remarks with a pledge “to the people of this province to unite in heart and soul to administer this trust for the public good.”
Since 1956, The Friends have met Tory’s charge to uplift the whole people by presenting the Henry Marshall Tory Lectures.
| 2023 | Samantha Nutt “Leading Change in a Complex World” |
| 2022 | Arno Kopecky “The Tyranny of Freedom” |
| 2021 | W. Andy Knight “Governing Disorder in our Intermestic World” |
| 2020 | Dan Riskin “Making Science Accessible to Canadians in the Age of COVID-19” |
| 2019 | Chantal Hébert “Canada’s post-election landscape: a harbinger of turbulence to come on the unity front” |
| 2018 (Autumn) |
Jim Hole “Cannabis, the Plant Not the Politics” |
| 2018 (Spring) |
The Right Honourable Kim Campbell “Preparing 21st Century Leaders” |
| 2017 | The Honourable Russell Brown Supreme Court of Canada “Judicial Review: Why the Fuss?” |
| 2014 | Dr. Ibolja Cernak Professor and Chair of the Canadian Military and Veterans’ Clinical Rehabilitation “Responsibility for Soldiers as a Measure of Societal Maturity” |
| 2012 | Don Tapscott Authority on innovation, media, and the economic and social impact of technology Delivered the lecture at the Festival of Ideas: Shifting Tectonic Social Plates |
| 2011 | Ambassador David Jacobson 29th United States Ambassador to Canada “Neighbors, Friends, Partners and Allies: Strengthening our Bilateral Relationship” |
| 2010 | Tim Flannery Author, Scientist “How Man is Changing the Climate: What it Means for Life on Earth” |
| 2008 | Edward O. Wilson Professor Emeritus and Honorary Curator in Entomology, Harvard University “How the hand of evolution shapes every aspect of life” |
| 2007 | Ambassador David H. Wilkins 28th United States Ambassador to Canada Canada-U.S. Relations |
| 2005 | Professor Margaret MacMillan Provost and Vice-Chancellor, Trinity College, University of Toronto, author of the award-winning Paris 1919 “The Art of Peace” |
| 2002 | The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin Chief Justice of Canada “Putting it All in Context – Judicial Reasoning in a Complex World” |
| 2000 | Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University “My Library was Dukedom Large Enough: The Tenacity of the Humanistic Tradition” |
| 1997 | Professor John Mueller University of Rochester “The Art of Fred Astaire” |
| 1996 | The Right Honourable Ramon John Hnatyshyn Governor General of Canada 1990 – 1995 “Reflections on a Public Life” |
| 1994 | Dr. Roberta Lynn Bondar Astronaut, Neurologist, Researcher “Where Out of this World Are We?” |
| 1993 | Derek Brewer Professor Emeritus, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, England “In Search of Chaucer” |
| 1992 | Helen Forrester Novelist and autobiographer |
| 1989 | Stephen Lewis Former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations |
| 1987 | Her Excellency the Right Honourable Jeanne Sauve Chancellor, University of Manitoba Governor General of Canada |
| 1984 | Lord Asa Briggs Provost, Worcester College, Oxford |
| 1982 | Dr. Harold Masursky United States Geological Survey |
| 1981 | Mr. James J. MacDonell FCA, FMC Chairman, Board of Governors of the Canadian Comprehensive Auditing Foundation, Ottawa |
| 1979 | Professor Sir William Hawthorne CBE, FRS Professor of Applied Thermodynamics, University of Cambridge, England |
| 1978 | Professor H. Northrop Frye University of Toronto |
| 1977 | Sir Harold Mitchell B.T. Chief Executive, Luscar Ltd., Zermatt, Switzerland |
| 1976 | His Excellency Thomas O. Enders 19th United States Ambassador to Canada |
| 1975 | Commissioner S. M. Hodgson Northwest Territories, Yellowknife |
| 1974 | Professor F. R. Hayes Professor of Biology, Dalhousie University |
| 1973 | Professor Phillip Tobias Head of the Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa |
| 1972 | Professor Zelman Cowen Vice-Chancellor, University of Queensland, Australia |
| 1971 | Dr. Claude Bissel Former President, University of Toronto |
| 1970 | The Honourable Mr. Justice W. G. Morrow Judge of the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories |
| 1969 | Dr. A. W. Trueman Chancellor, University of Western Ontario |
| 1968 | Lord Hankey British Diplomat |
| 1967 | Professor James Barrington Visiting Professor of International Relations, University of Alberta |
| 1966 | Chester Ronning Canadian Diplomat, expert on China |
| 1965 | Blair Fraser Newspaperman and journalist |
| 1964 | Dr. Wilder Penfield Neurosurgeon, Royal Victoria and Montreal General Hospitals |
| 1963 | C. Northcote Parkinson Author, historian and journalist, President of Parkinson Institute |
| 1962 | Mr. Justice Samuel Freedman Judge, Manitoba Court of Appeal, Chancellor, University of Manitoba |
| 1961 | Ezra Taft Benson United States Secretary of Agriculture |
| 1960 | James M. Minifie CBC Washington Correspondent |
| 1959 | Sir Grantley Adams First Prime Minister of the Federation of West Indies, Founder and leader of Barbados Labour Movement |
| 1958 | Sidney E. Smith Secretary of State for External Affairs, Dean of Law, Dalhousie University, President, University of Manitoba, President, University of Toronto |
| 1957 | Sir Alan P. Herbert Author, former M.P. |
| 1956 | Lewis W. Douglas United States Ambassador to Great Britain |
Annual Dinner Lectures
Presented by The Friends of the University of Alberta
| 2019 | Dr. Lee Foote, Director, University of Alberta Botanic Garden |
| 2018 | Dr. Steven Penney, professor from the Faculty of Law |
| 2017 | Douglas Stollery, Chancellor, University of Alberta |
| 2016 | Dr. David Turpin, President and Vice Chancellor, University of Alberta |
| 2015 | Dr. Jonathan Schaeffer, Dean of Science, University of Alberta |
| 2014 | Dr. Joseph Doucet, Dean, Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta |
| 2013 | Katy Campbell, Dean, Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta |
| 2012 | Allen Berger, Dean, Augustana College, University of Alberta |
| 2011 | Lesley Cormack, Dean of Arts, University of Alberta |
| 2010 | Sean Price, Executive Director, Alumni Association, University of Alberta |
| 2009 | Linda Hughes, Chancellor, University of Alberta |
| 2008 | Dr. Rosalind Sydie, Executive Director Centenary 2008, University of Alberta |
| 2007 | Brian Heidecker, Chair Board of Governors, University of Alberta |
| 2006 | Indira Samarasakera, President, University of Alberta |
| 2005 | Eric Newell, Chancellor, University of Alberta |
| 2004 | Dr. Carl Amhrein, Provost, University of Alberta |
| 2003 | Daniel Woolf, Dean of Arts, University of Alberta |
| 2002 | Dr. Doug Owram, Provost, University of Alberta |
| 2001 | John Ferguson, Chancellor, University of Alberta |
| 2000 | Kenneth Norrie, Dean of Arts, University of Alberta |
| 1999 | Lois Hole, Chancellor, University of Alberta |
Hurtig Lectures on the Future of Canada
supported by The Friends of the University of Alberta
2013 |
Ms. Armine Yalnizyan, Senior Economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and Vice President of the Canadian Association for Business Economics “The Future of Canada. Why inequality is a problem in Canada and what we can do about it.” |
2012 |
George Elliott Clark, 2005 Trudeau Fellow |
2011 |
Lawrence Martin, Canadian journalist and author |
2010 |
Mary Simon, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami |
2009 |
Neil Macdonald, Canadian journalist |
2008 |
Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist |
| 2007 | Heather Mallick, Canadian columnist, author and lecturer |
| 2006 | Peter C. Newman, Canadian journalist and writer |