In 1885, the Hitchcock Endowment Fund was established from a bequest made by Dr. Charles M. Hitchcock to institute a professorship at the University of California for free lectures upon scientific and practical subjects. Dr. Hitchcock, whose longstanding interest in education inspired his contribution, was a physician and served as medical director of the Pacific Coast in the United States Army Medical Corps. The Hitchcock Foundation Lectures began in 1909 and were later expanded and retitled the Charles M. and Martha Hitchcock Lectures in 1932, thanks to a generous bequest from Dr. Hitchcock's daughter, Lillie Hitchcock Coit.
| Title | Lecturer | Year |
| Agency, Urgency, and Hope: Science and Scientists Serving Society | The Honorable Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D. | 2025 |
| Forging a New Political System, 2024 and Beyond | Heather Cox Richardson in Conversation with Dylan Penningroth | 2025 |
| The Arc of Energy Justice: A Pursuit to Ensure Affordable, Reliable, and Clean Energy for All | Tony G. Reames | 2024 |
| Creating Equality of Opportunity: New Insights from Big Data | Raj Chetty | 2023 |
| Time, Einstein, and the Coolest Stuff in the Universe | William D. Phillips | 2022 |
| A New Measure: The Revolutionary, Quantum Reform of the Modern Metric System | William D. Phillips | 2022 |
| 21st Century Global Health Priorities | Christopher J.L. Murray | 2022 |
| Metrics in Action: Lessons Learned from 30 Years of the Global Burden of Disease Study | Christopher J.L. Murray | 2022 |
| The Assault on Empathy: The Promise of a Friction-Free Life | Sherry Turkle | 2019 |
| The Assault on Empathy: The Promise of Artificial Intimacy | Sherry Turkle | 2019 |
| Evolution and Creationism as Science and Myth | Eugenie C. Scott | 2018 |
| Why Do People Reject Good Science? | Eugenie C. Scott | 2018 |
| The Real ‘Skin in the Game’: The History of Naked, Sweaty, and Colorful Skin in the Human Lineage | Nina Jablonski | 2017 |
| The Cost of Color: The Health and Social Consequences of Skin Color for People Today | Nina Jablonski | 2017 |
| The Language of Friendship: The Role of Talk in an Understudied Relationship | Deborah Tannen | 2017 |
| Conversations on the Small Screen: Talking over Social Media | Deborah Tannen | 2017 |
| Contemporary Climate Change as Seen Through Measurements | Ralph J. Cicerone | 2016 |
| Why We Have Effective Agreements to Protect the Ozone Layer But Not to Stabilize Climate | Ralph J. Cicerone | 2016 |
| Imagine America without Los Angeles: Applying science to understand the vulnerability of modern society to natural disasters | Lucy Jones | 2015 |
| The Challenges of Science Communication: | Lucy Jones | 2015 |
| How Can Telomeres Cause Age-Related Disease? | Carol Greider | 2014 |
| The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined | Steven Pinker | 2014 |
| Telomeres and Telomerase: Past, Present and Future | Carol Greider | 2014 |
| The Elephant in the Room: The Psychology of Innuendo & Euphemism | Steven Pinker | 2014 |
| Intelligence and the Brain: Recent Advances in Understanding How the Brain Works | Jeff Hawkins | 2012 |
| Intelligence and Machines: Creating Intellligent Machines by Modeling the Brain | Jeff Hawkins | 2012 |
| Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet | Steven Squyres | 2011 |
| The Future of Planetary Exploration | Steven Squyres | 2011 |
| Mission Blue: Protecting the Blue Heart of the Planet | Sylvia Earle | 2011 |
| Exploring the Deep Frontier | Sylvia Earle | 2011 |
| Entering the RNA World | Sidney Altman | 2010 |
| Ribonuclease P: A Small Step in the RNA World | Sidney Altman | 2010 |
| Studying Economic Behavior in Unusual Places: From Deal or No Deal to the National Football League | Richard H. Thaler | 2010 |
| Rethinking Regulation after the Financial Crisis and the Oil Spill: A Behavioral Approach | Richard H. Thaler | 2010 |
| The Great Transitions in Evolution: Finding Fossils, Studying Genes, and Bridging Gaps | Neil Shubin | 2009 |
| Wings, Legs, and Fins: How Do New Organs Arise in Evolution | Neil Shubin | 2009 |
| Emerging Infectious Diseases and Global Health | Lucy Shapiro | 2009 |
| The Systems Architecture of a Bacterial Cell Cycle | Lucy Shapiro | 2009 |
| A Scientist Addresses Science Education | Leon Lederman | 2009 |
| A Sense of Wonder | Leon Lederman | 2009 |
| Calcium, Proteins, Energy, and Life | Chikashi Toyoshima | 2008 |
| A Molecular Machine at Work: The Case of the Calcium Pump Protein | Chikashi Toyoshima | 2008 |
| Physics and History: Links Between Two Cultures – Forged in the Baroque | John Heilbron | 2007 |
| Physics and History: Links Between Two Cultures – Fractured in Modernity | John Heilbron | 2007 |
| Explorations of the Mind-Intuition: The Marvels and the Flaws | Daniel Kahneman | 2007 |
| Explorations of the Mind-Happiness | Daniel Kahneman | 2007 |
| What Is Our Universe Like in the Large, and How Did It Get That Way? – Exploring the Large-Scale Nature of the Universe | P. James E. Peebles | 2006 |
| What Is Our Universe Like in the Large, and How Did It Get That Way? – Triumphs and Challenges for Modern Cosmology | P. James E. Peebles | 2006 |
| From Egg to Adult and Back Again – How Does an Egg Make an Organism? Some General Principles | Sir John Gurdon | 2006 |
| From Egg to Adult and Back Again – Cloning, Stem Cells, and Cell Replacement | Sir John Gurdon | 2006 |
| Intimate Encounters with Molecules – Taming Molecular Wildness | Dudley Herschbach | 2005 |
| Intimate Encounters with Molecules – Breaking and Making Chemical Bonds | Dudley Herschbach | 2005 |
| Identity and Violence – The Violence of Illusion | Amartya Sen | 2005 |
| Identity and Violence – Making Sense of Identity | Amartya Sen | 2005 |
| Changes in the Process of Aging during the Twentieth Century – Disparities in Chronic Diseases during the Course of the Twentieth Century | Robert W. Fogel | 2004 |
| Changes in the Process of Aging during the Twentieth Century – Common Analytical Errors in Explanations for Improvements in Health and Longevity | Robert W. Fogel | 2004 |
| Holding on to Atoms and Molecules with Lasers – Laser Cooling: From Atomic Clocks to Watching Biomolecules Move | Steven Chu | 2004 |
| Holding on to Atoms and Molecules with Lasers – What Can Physics Say about Life? | Steven Chu | 2004 |
| Gene, Organism, and Environment: Bad Metaphors and Good Biology | Richard C. Lewontin | 2003 |
| The Concept of Race – The Confusion of Social and Biological Reality | Richard C. Lewontin | 2003 |
| Atomic and Molecular Astrophysics – The Synthesis of Molecules in the Universe | Alexander Dalgarno | 2003 |
| Atomic and Molecular Astrophysics – Comets and the Solar Wind | Alexander Dalgarno | 2003 |
| The Mathematical Way of Understanding the World – Clocks and Chaos | Dr. David Mumford | 2002 |
| The Mathematical Way of Understanding the World – Models of Thought | Dr. David Mumford | 2002 |
| Language and Mind Revisited – The Biolinguistic Turn | Noam Chomsky | 2002 |
| Language and Mind Revisited – Language and the Rest of the World | Noam Chomsky | 2002 |
| Sequencing the Human Genome – Prokaryotes | J. Craig Venter | 2002 |
| Sequencing the Human Genome – Eukaryotes | J. Craig Venter | 2002 |
| Inequalities in Health – Life and Death on the Social Gradient | Sir. Michael Marmot | 2001 |
| Inequalities in Health – There is Such a Thing as Society | Sir. Michael Marmot | 2001 |
| Modern Alchemy: Stars, Chemistry and Cosmology | E. Margaret Burbidge | 2001 |
| The Riddle of the Redshift: The Universe We Don’t Understand | E. Margaret Burbidge | 2001 |
| The Gene’s Eye View of Creation – The Genetic Book of the Dead | Richard Dawkins | 2001 |
| The Gene’s Eye View of Creation: The Selfish Cooperator | Richard Dawkins | 2001 |
| Deciphering the Maya Script | Michael D. Coe | 2000 |
| More Than a Drink: Chocolate in the Pre-Columbian World | Michael D. Coe | 2000 |
| Parallel Civilizations: Ancient Angkor and the Ancient Maya | Michael D. Coe | 2000 |
| How Many People Can the Earth Support? | Joel E. Cohen | 2000 |
| Human Carrying Capacity: Concepts, Methods and Models | Joel E. Cohen | 2000 |
| Special Presentation: Films and Discussion of Population Issues | Joel E. Cohen | 2000 |
| Cities in Civilization: Culture, Innovation and Urban Order | Sir Peter Hall | 2000 |
| The End of the City? ‘The report of my death was an exaggeration’ | Sir Peter Hall | 2000 |
| Perception, Imagination and Science | Roger N. Shepard | 1999 |
| The Grounds of Science and of Ethics | Roger N. Shepard | 1999 |
| How the Ears’ Works Work: Auditory Sensory Transduction | A. James Hudspeth | 1999 |
| Getting in Tune: Auditory Frequency Selectivity | A. James Hudspeth | 1999 |
| Environment, Population, Consumption, and Sustainable Development – The Great Challenges of Our Time | Norman Myers | 1998 |
| Tropical Forests: Their Future and Our Future | Norman Myers | 1998 |
| Science, a Round Peg in a Square World | Harold Kroto | 1998 |
| C60: Buckminsterfullerene, Not Just a Pretty Molecule | Harold Kroto | 1998 |
| Failed Visions and Unexpected Adaptations – Reflections on the Interaction of Society and Communications Technology | Robert Lucky | 1998 |
| How Will We Connect? – Rethinking the World’s Communications in the Age of the Internet | Robert Lucky | 1998 |
| Archaeology, Genetics and Linguistic Diversity: Towards a New Synthesis | Colin Renfrew | 1997 |
| The Sapiens Paradox, Or Why Did People Get Smart So Late? | Colin Renfrew | 1997 |
| Chicken Little Was Right: The Sky Is Falling | Eugene Shoemaker | 1997 |
| Things That Went Bump in the Night (and Shook the Earth) | Eugene Shoemaker | 1997 |
| Tangles, Bangles and Knots | John Horton Conway | 1996 |
| Fractran: A Ridiculous Logical Language | John Horton Conway | 1996 |
