The Leach Lecture recognizes scientists who have made an exceptional contribution to protein science including their role as advocates for the discipline, with a particular focus on Australian and New Zealand scientists. The award is named in honour of Syd Leach who was the driving force behind the founding of the Lorne Conference on Protein Structure and Function in 1976, which was the original Lorne-brand meeting that inspired our sister conferences on Genome, Proteomics, Cancer and Infection and Immunity.