At its 2005 meeting in Fukuoka, Japan, the SETI Permanent Study Group (SPSG) of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) voted to establish an annual Billingham Cutting-Edge Lecture, as a forum to showcase breakthrough thinking in advancing the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. The lecture honors longtime SPSG member and former chairman Dr. John Billingham, a major force for forty years in promoting innovation within the SETI field. Speakers are to be selected by the SPSG, with one Cutting-Edge Lecture to be delivered each year at the opening of the SETI II sessions of the IAA Symposium on SETI, at the annual International Astronautical Congress.

Each year, the speaker chosen for that year will be asked to present one cutting-edge idea and its potential implications for the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence. To help with travel expenses and/or as a small honorarium, the speaker will be paid $4000 US. Dr. Steven Dick, the first Billingham Cutting-Edge Lecturer (see below), has generously waived his 2006 honorarium. SPSG member Dr. Allen Tough (Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto; Chief Scientist, Invitation to ETI) has pledged $4000 US a year for the next few years.

• About Dr. John Billingham
• Welcome message from benefactor Allen Tough
• Greetings from honoree John Billingham

Individuals selected to deliver the annual Billingham Cutting-Edge Lecture are listed below.

Year	Lecturer	Topic
2008	Ivan Almar	Do we interpret SETI terms correctly?
2007	Kathryn Denning	Being Technological
2006	Steven J. Dick	The Postbiological Universe (Abstract) (Paper)

• See also: Annual Rudolph Pesek Lecture