| 2024 | Prof. Atsushi Iriki | Riken Research Institute | Nara, Japan |
| 2023 | Prof. Sophie Scott | University College London (UCL) | Reading, UK, and Virtual (Hybrid) |
| 2022 | Dr. Dani S. Bassett | University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia and Virtual (Hybrid) |
| 2021 | Dr. Salikoko S. Mufwene | University of Chicago | Virtual |
| 2020 | Elissa Newport | Georgetown University | Virtual |
| 2019 | Lyndsey Nickels | Macquarie University | Hong Kong |
| 2018 | Julie Fiez | University of Pittsburgh | Montreal |
| 2017 | Alex Martin | National Institute of Mental Health | Baltimore |
| 2016 | Marco Catani | King's College London | Llandudno |
| 2015 | Marta Kutas | University of California, San Diego | Tucson |
| 2014 | Isabelle Peretz | University of Montreal | Miami |
| 2013 | Stanislas Dehaene | Collge de France-Lucerne | Switzerland |
| 2012 | Gregory Hickok | University of California, Irvine | San Francisco |
| 2011 | Robert Zatorre | McGill University | Montreal |
| 2010 | Michael Petrides | McGill University | Athens |
| 2009 | Marc Hauser | Harvard University | Boston |
| 2008 | Riitta Salmelin | Helsinki Unversity of Technology | Turku |
| 2007 | Argye Hillis | Johns Hopkins | Washington, D.C. |
| 2006 | Kenneth Heilman | University of Florida | Victoria |
| 2005 | Pim Levelt | Max Planck Nijmegen | Amsterdam |
| 2004 | Alfonso Caramazza | Harvard University | Chicago |
| 2003 | Claus Wallesch | University of Magdeburg | Vienna |
| 2002 | Jean Berko Gleason | Boston University | New York |
| 2001 | Gary Van Hoesen | University Iowa | Boulder |
| 2000 | Leonard LaPointe | Florida State University | Montreal |
| 1999 | Giovanni Berlucchi | University of Verona | Venice |
| 1998 | Myrna Schwartz | Temple University | Santa Fe |
| 1997 | Liz Bates | UCSD | Philadelphia |
| 1996 | Edgar Zurif | Brandeis University | London |
| 1995 | Sheila Blumstein | Brown University | San Diego |
| 1994 | Ray Jackendoff | Brandeis University | Boston |
| 1993 | Ruth Lesser | London | Tuscon |
| 1992 | John Marshall | University of Cambridge | Toronto |
| 1991 | Klaus Poeck | Aachen University | Rome |
| 1990 | Harold Goodglass | Boston University | Baltimore |
| 1989 | Andr Roch-Lecours | University of Montreal | Santa Fe |
| 1988 | Brenda Milner | McGill University | Montreal |
| 1987 | Jay McClelland | Carnegie Mellon University | Phoenix |
| 1986 | Antonio Damasio | University of Iowa | |
| 1985 | Audrey Holland | University of Pittsburgh | |
| 1984 | George Ojemann | University of Washington | |