The Morton Lecture was instituted in 1978 to commemorate the late R.A. Morton.  The winners of the award lectureship demonstrate they have made an outstanding contribution to lipid biochemistry.

The late R.A. Morton was Johnston Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Liverpool and the current incumbent of that Chair sits with the Awards Committee when the Morton Lecturer is selected.

The Morton Lecture is given every other year at a conference of the Society and at the University of Liverpool. The lecturer receives an honorarium of £2000 and the lecture is published in Biochemical Society Transactions.

The 2012 Morton Lecturer was Kai Simons (Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany), who delivered the award lecture at the Focused Meeting Regulation of protein trafficking and function by palmitoylation, 23—25 August 2012 at St Anne's College, Oxford, UK.