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Past Ubben Lecturers

The history of the Ubben Lecture Series includes 25 years of lectures from some of the world's most recognized scholars, leaders and artists.

Ubben Lecture Series Archives 1986-2009
     
Jane Pauley
Award-Winning Journalist
April 17, 2009
 
Todd Rundgren
Music and Technology Pioneer
April 8, 2009 

David Plouffe
Obama 2008 Campaign Manager
February 2, 2009 

Greg Mortenson
Author of
Three Cups of Tea
November 13, 2008
 

Tony Blair
Former Prime Minister of Great Britain
March 3, 2008 

Frank Warren
 PostSecret Founder
November 26, 2007 
 
Ralph Nader
Consumer Advocate &  Presidential Candidate
September 27, 2007 

Jim Alling '82
President,
Starbucks USA 
March 13, 2007

Mitch Albom
Best-selling Author and Sportswriter 
November 13, 2006 
 
E.O. Wilson
Biologist and Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author
November 8, 2006

Charles Fishman
Author of The Wal-Mart Effect
April 18, 2006 
 
Mikhail Gorbachev
Former Soviet Leader and Nobel Laureate
October 27, 2005 

Naomi Wolf
Author and Feminist  
September 21, 2005 
 
Paul Rusesabagina 
Real-Life Hero of Hotel Rwanda
April 25, 2005
 
 
Liz Murray
"Homeless to Harvard"
April 6, 2005 

Peyton Manning
2003 NFL Co-MVP
October 26, 2004 

Sen. Richard G. Lugar 
Chair, Senate Foreign Relations Committee 
October 25, 2004 
 
Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III
Former Presidential Envoy to Iraq
September 16, 2004
 
William S. Cohen
Former Defense Secretary, Senator & Congressman
April 22, 2004 
 
Eric Schlosser 
Author and Investigative Journalist
November 11, 2003 

Paul A. Volcker
Former Federal Reserve Chairman 
October 8, 2003 
 
Gen. Wesley K. Clark (Ret.)
Presidential Candidate and Military Analyst
September 23, 2003 
 
Spike Lee
Director, Producer and Writer
April 3, 2003 
 
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
Founders of "Ben & Jerry's" Ice Cream
November 18, 2002 
 
Mike Krzyzewski
Head Basketball Coach, Duke University
September 12, 2002 
 
Harry Belafonte
Entertainer and Human Rights Activist
September 7, 2002 
 
David McCullough
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author, Historian and Television Host
March 18, 2002 
 
Robert Gates
Former CIA Director
December 3, 2001 
 
Robert H. Waterston, M.D., Ph.D.
Director of the Genome Sequencing Center, Washington University
November 15, 2001 

John Major
Former British Prime Minister
October 29, 2001 
 
Burton Lee Gerber
Retired CIA Officer
March 22, 2001 
 
Norman J. Ornstein
Author, Columnist and CBS Election Analyst
November 16, 2000

Samuel E. Mann
Methodist Minister, Human Rights Spokesman
November 13, 2000 

William J. Bennett
Former Secretary of Education
March 2, 2000 

Andrew Young
Former UN Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor
March 2, 2000 

Julian Bond
NAACP Chairman, Civil Rights and Peace Activist
February 29, 2000

Oliver Sacks
Neurologist and Author, Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
October 28, 1999
 

Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D. '58
1998 Nobel Laureate in Medicine
April 23, 1999 

George Gilder
Economist, Technology Consultant and Commentator
April 16, 1999 

Doris Kearns Goodwin
Pulitzer-Prize Winning Historian and Best-Selling Author and Commentator
February 12, 1999

Alan Simpson
Retired US Senator, Attorney and Author 
November 6, 1998

David R. Gergen
Presidential Advisor, Journalist and Political Commentator
October 14, 1998 

Sam Donaldson
Correspondent, ABC News
May 8, 1998 

Seymour M. Hersh
Author, The Dark Side of Camelot 
December 9, 1997

Jonathan Kozol
Educator, Writer and Activist
November 11-12, 1997 

Gloria Borger
Columnist, US News and World Report, and CBS News Analyst
November 5, 1997 

Christopher Edley, Jr.
Senior Adviser to President Clinton and Author
November 5, 1997 

Gwen Ifill
Correspondent, NBC News
October 28, 1997 

Roger Wilkins
Educator, Writer, NPR Commentator and Activist
October 14-15, 1997 

Bill Bradley
Former US Senator and Basketball Hall of Famer
September 10, 1997

Benazir Bhutto
Former Prime Minister of Pakistan
May 7, 1997 

Sister Helen Prejean
Prison Activist and Author of Dead Man Walking
April 30, 1997
 

Dr. David Ho
Time Magazine's 1996 Person of the Year, AIDS Researcher
April 16, 1997 

Shimon Peres
Former Prime Minister of Israel and 1994 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient
November 11, 1996

H. Ross Perot
Business Executive and Presidential Candidate
April 29, 1996 

Barbara Bush
Former First Lady
March 20, 1996 

James Lovell
Former Astronaut and Apollo 13 Commander
December 1, 1995 

Bob Woodward
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist, Assistant Managing Editor, The Washington Post
December 2, 1994

General Colin Powell
Former Chairman, US Joint Chiefs of Staff
November 2, 1994

Lynne Cheney
Former Chair, National Endowment for the Humanities
October 7, 1994 

Ken Burns
Emmy Award-Winning Documentary Filmmaker
April 8, 1994 

George Will
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Columnist, Newsweek and The Washington Post
March 4, 1994
 

Allen Neuharth
Founder, USA Today
December 3, 1993
 

Brian Mulroney
Former Prime Minister of Canada
November 18, 1993

David S. Broder
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Political Commentator
November 12, 1993

Paul Tsongas
Former U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate
April 30, 1993 

Carl Rowan
Journalist and Author
April 6, 1993 

Leon Lederman
Physicist and Nobel Laureate
April 2, 1993 

Tom Wicker
Author, Commentator and Former New York Times Columnist
March 12, 1993 

Jesse Jackson
Civil Rights Leader and Two-Time Presidential Candidate
December 3, 1992 

William J. Bennett
Former Secretary of Education
September 30, 1992

Margaret Thatcher
Former Prime Minister of Great Britain
April 7, 1992

David R. Brower
Environmentalist
January 25, 1991 

Willy Brandt
Former Chancellor of West Germany and Nobel Peace Prize Winner
November 2, 1990 

Lester C. Thurow
Economist and Author
March 9, 1990 

Elie Wiesel
Author and Nobel Peace Prize Winner
September 21, 1989 

William J. Bennet
Former Secretary of Education
October 6, 1988 

Zbigniew Brzezinski
Former National Security Adviser
March 4, 1988

Mary Frances Berry
Historian and Member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
November 6, 1987 

Allan Bloom
Philosopher and Author, Closing of the American Mind
September 11, 1987
 

Gov. Richard Lamm
(D) Colorado
November 5, 1986