Henry Norris Russell Lectureship
The Henry Norris Russell Lectureship is awarded each year by the American Astronomical Society in recognition of a lifetime of excellence in astronomical research. The idea for the lectureship came from then society President Harlow Shapley in 1945, who led the fund raising drive to collect $10,000 from the membership. One of the major contributors was the Mexican Ambassador to the United States, as Russell had been an important representative at the dedication ceremony for the Mexican National Observatory. The goal was reached in December 1946, using not a little amount of coercive language by Shapley. The first Russell lecturer was, naturally, fellow American astronomer Henry Norris Russell, for whom the award is named. Russell gave a lecture titled "The Royal Road of Eclipses" concerning eclipsing binary stars.
Previous lecturers
This list of lecturers is from the American Astronomical Society's website.| Year | Winner |
| 1946 | Henry Norris Russell |
| 1947 | Walter Sydney Adams |
| 1948 | No award |
| 1949 | Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar |
| 1950 | Harlow Shapley |
| 1951 | Jan Oort |
| 1952 | No award |
| 1953 | Enrico Fermi, Lyman Spitzer |
| 1954 | No award |
| 1955 | Paul Merrill |
| 1956 | Joel Stebbins |
| 1957 | Otto Struve |
| 1958 | Walter Baade |
| 1959 | Gerard P. Kuiper |
| 1960 | Martin Schwarzschild |
| 1961 | William Wilson Morgan |
| 1962 | Grote Reber |
| 1963 | William Alfred Fowler |
| 1964 | Ira S. Bowen |
| 1965 | Bengt Strömgren |
| 1966 | Richard Tousey |
| 1967 | Otto Neugebauer |
| 1968 | John G. Bolton |
| 1969 | Eugene Parker |
| 1970 | Jesse L. Greenstein |
| 1971 | Fred Hoyle |
| 1972 | Allan Sandage |
| 1973 | Leo Goldberg |
| 1974 | Edwin Salpeter |
| 1975 | George Herbig |
| 1976 | Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin |
| 1977 | Olin C. Wilson |
| 1978 | Maarten Schmidt |
| 1979 | Peter Goldreich |
| 1980 | Jeremiah P. Ostriker |
| 1981 | Riccardo Giacconi |
| 1982 | Bart Bok |
| 1983 | Herbert Friedman |
| 1984 | E. Margaret Burbidge |
| 1985 | Olin J. Eggen |
| 1986 | Albert Whitford |
| 1987 | Fred L. Whipple |
| 1988 | Gerard de Vaucouleurs |
| 1989 | Icko Iben, Jr. |
| 1990 | Sidney van den Bergh |
| 1991 | Donald Osterbrock |
| 1992 | Lawrence Aller |
| 1993 | James Peebles |
| 1994 | Vera Rubin |
| 1995 | Robert Kraft |
| 1996 | Gerry Neugebauer |
| 1997 | Alastair Cameron |
| 1998 | Charles Townes |
| 1999 | John Bahcall |
| 2000 | Donald Lynden-Bell |
| 2001 | Wallace Sargent |
| 2002 | George Wallerstein |
| 2003 | George Wetherill |
| 2004 | Martin Rees |
| 2005 | James E. Gunn |
| 2006 | Bohdan Paczyński |
| 2007 | David L. Lambert |
| 2008 | Rashid Sunyaev |
| 2009 | George W. Preston |
| 2010 | Margaret J. Geller |
| 2011 | Sandra M. Faber |
| 2012 | William David Arnett |
| 2013 | Ken Freeman |
| 2014 | George B. Field |
| 2015 | Giovanni G. Fazio |
| 2016 | Christopher F. McKee |
| 2017 | Eric Becklin |
| 2018 | Joseph Silk |
| 2019 | Ann Merchant Boesgaard |
| 2020 | Scott Tremaine |