General Education

Former University Forum Speakers
Several forum speeches are archived at BYU Speeches. Click on the title to download the speech in various media (HTML, MP3, PDF, etc.). Those without links are not available. Click on the link below the speaker's name to read a brief biography.

Semester/Term	Speaker	Title of Speech
FALL 2009	Greg Mortenson  Author, Three Cups of Tea  Founder of Central Asia Institute	"Fighting for Peace Through Education"
	Neil deGrasse Tyson Astrophysicist Director of  Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History	The Cosmic Perspective
SUMMER 2009	John Bell Dean, Undergraduate Education	The Physiology of Faith and Fear
SPRING 2009	Roger Macfarlane BYU Professor of Humanities, Classics, and Comparative Literature	Lighting Vesuvius:  Observations and Lessons From an Infamous Volcano
WINTER 2009	Martin Seligman Professor of Psychology University of Pennsylvania	Positive Psychology and Positive Education
	Arthur Brooks Professor, Business and Government Policy Syracuse University	Why Giving Matters
	David Long Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Professor, Computer and Electrical Engineering	Microwaves, Icebergs, and Global Warming
FALL 2008	Lynne Truss Author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation	Is This the End of Literacy?
	Robert George McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Princeton University	On the Moral Purposes of Law and Government
	F. W. de Klerk Former South African President Nobel Peace Prize Winner	Bridging the Gap:  Globalization Without Isolation
	Ronan Tynan Singer, Physician, and Disabled Athlete	Hitting the High Notes:  Living Your Life to the Fullest
SUMMER 2008	Paul Savage BYU Professor of Biochemistry	Winning the War Against an Innumerable Army:  Protection Through Innate Immunity
SPRING 2008	Barta Heiner BYU Professor of Theatre & Media Arts	Counterfeits:  A Mess of Pottage
WINTER 2008	Brian Green Professor of Mathematics & Physics Columbia University	The Fabric of the Cosmos:  Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality
	Kening Lu Distinguished Faculty Lecturer BYU Professor of Mathematics	Can Calculus Carry Nerve Signals?
	Paul Rusesabagina Founder of Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation	Hotel Rwanda: A Story Yet to Be Told
FALL 2007	Nathaniel Philbrick Author of Mayflower	Mayflower:  A Story of Courage, Community, and War
	John G. Roberts Jr. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
	Harry Reid US Senator for Nevada	Faith, Family, and Public Service
	Franklin Chang-Diaz NASA Astronaut
SUMMER 2007	Jenny Pulsipher Associate Professor of History Brigham Young University	Indiana Jones in the Archives: The Art and Adventure of History
SPRING 2007	Lance Larsen Associate Professor of English Brigham Young University	Coaxing the Muse: Thoughts on the Creative Process
WINTER 2007	Ken Burns Documentary Film Maker	No Ordinary Lives
	C. Arden Pope, III Professor of Economics Brigham Young University (Distinguished Faculty Lecture)	What Are You Breathing and Should You Inhale?
FALL 2006	Marilyn Chandler McEntyre English Professor Westmont College	The Beholding Eye: Reflections in Poetry on the Art of Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh
	Jonathan Spence Sterling Professor of History Yale	China Right Now:  Does the Past Matter?
	Jean Bethke Elshtain Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics University of Chicago	How Do We Think about What Is Human?: C. S. Lewis and The Abolition of Man
	Alwi Shihab Indonesian Political Leader, Author, and Islamic Scholar	Building Bridges to Harmony through Understanding
	Robert Putnam Malkin Professor of Public Policy Harvard University	Community Engagement in a Changing America
SUMMER 2006	Dan Judd Associate Professor of Ancient Scripture Brigham Young University	Religion, Mental Health, and the Latter-day Saints
SPRING 2006	Allen Palmer Professor of Communications Brigham Young University	Information Has No Borders:  Globalization's Unfinished Business
WINTER 2006	Gordon Gee Chancellor of Vanderbilt University	Everything I Know about Being a Mormon I Learned from Running Universities
	Juliana Boerio-Goates BYU Professor of Biochemistry
	James Burke Historian, Author, and Television Producer
FALL 2005	Edward Friedman Author and Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature Vanderbilt University	The Heart of Don Quixote
	David McCullough Author of 1776 and John Adams	The Glorious Cause of America
SUMMER 2005	Neil L. York Professor of History Brigham Young University
SPRING 2005	Michael Whiting
WINTER 2005	David Levy Science Editor of Parade Magazine and Comet Enthusiast
	Roger Porter
	Terry Givens Author of The Viper on the Hearth, By the Hand of Mormon, and The Latter-Day Experience in America
FALL 2004	Stephen L. Tanner
	James Burke Historian, Author, and Television Producer
	Kenneth Cooper
FALL 2003	Oliver Sacks Author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
	Brad S. Gregory Associate Professor of History Stanford University
	Craig D. Jessop Music Director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
	Li-Young Lee American Academy of Poets Guggenheim Fellow
	Helen Thomas Former White House Bureau Chief and White House Correspondent
SUMMER 2003	Clayton Christensen Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration Harvard Business School
SPRING 2003	Margaret Barker Biblical Scholar and Author
WINTER 2003	J. Ward Moody Professor of Astronomy and Physical Science Brigham Young University
	Richard Light Walter H. Gale Professor of Education Harvard University
	Simon Schama Professor of History Columbia University	Television, Truth, and History
	Robert Alter Professor of Eastern Studies
FALL 2002	Richard Bushman Author of Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism
	Sandra Day O'Connor Associate Justice, US Supreme Court
SPRING 2002	Campbell Gray Director of BYU Museum of Art
WINTER 2002	Robert B. Sloan President and CEO of Baylor University
	Roald Hoffman Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters Cornell University