The Department of Genetics is proud to have had the following lecturers present past Bernard Cohen Memorial Lecture in Genetics:
| 1987 | Donald Brown, M.D. Carnegie Institution of Washington |
| 1988 | Walter J. Gehring, Ph.D. Biozentrum, University of Basel |
| 1989 | Raymond L. White, Ph.D. University of Utah |
| 1991 | Steven L. McKnight, Ph.D. Carnegie Institution of Washington |
| 1992 | Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ph.D. University of California, San Francisco |
| 1993 | Janet D. Rowley, M.D. University of Chicago |
| 1994 | Charles R. Scriver, O.C., M.D.C.M., F.R.S. McGill University |
| 1995 | Peter N. Goodfellow, D. Phil., F.R.S. Cambridge University |
| 1996 | Stuart H. Orkin, M.D. Harvard Medical School |
| 1997 | Richard Axel, M.D. Columbia University |
| 1998 | Bert Vogelstein, M.D. Johns Hopkins University |
| 1999 | Philip Leder, M.D. Harvard Medical School |
| 2000 | Joseph L. Goldstein, M.D University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center |
| 2001 | Joan A. Steitz, Ph.D. Yale University |
| 2002 | Jeffrey M. Friedman, Ph.D. The Rockefeller Institute |
| 2003 | Richard P. Lifton, M.D., Ph.D. Yale University School of Medicine |
| 2004 | Andrew Z. Fire, Ph.D. Stanford University School of Medicine |
| 2005 | Sir Paul M. Nurse The Rockefeller University |
| 2006 | Huda Y. Zoghbi, M.D. Baylor College of Medicine |
| 2007 | Rudolf Jaenisch, M.D. Whitehead Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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