The Ernst Chain Lecture is an annual lecture organised by the Department of Life Sciences. It is named after the Nobel Laureate Sir Ernst Chain, who was Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial. He was a joint-winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1945, alongside Professor Sir Alexander Fleming, who was at St Mary's Hospital, and Sir Howard Florey for the discovery of Penicillin. Speakers at this lecture are renowned scientists in the field of Life Sciences, and have included a number of Nobel Laureates, including Professor Michael Levitt, from Stanford University, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2013.