Gold Medal (RGS)
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The Gold Medal are the most prestigious of the awards presented by the Royal Geographical Society. The Gold Medal is not one award but consits of two separate awards; the Founder's Medal 1830 and the Patron's Medal 1838. The award is given for "the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery", and require Royal approval before an award can be made. The awards originated as an annual gift of fifty guineas from King William IV, first made in 1831, "to constitute a premium for the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery". The Royal Geographical Society decided in 1839 to change this monetary award into two gold medals: Founder’s Medal and the Patron’s. The award has been given to notable geographers including David Livingstone (1855), Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen (1878) and Alfred Russel Wallace (1892) to more recent winners including Professor William Morris Davis (1919), Sir Halford John Mackinder (1945), Professor Richard Chorley (1987) and Professor David Harvey (1995).
[edit] Past Recipients
| Date | Founder's Medal | Contribution | Patron's Medal | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Professor Derek Gregory | international leadership of research in human geography and social theory | Professor Jack Ives | role internationally in establishing the global importance of mountain regions |
| 2005 | Professor Sir Nicholas Shackleton | research on Quaternary palaeoclimatology | Professor Jean Malaurie | lifelong study of the Arctic and its peoples |
| 2004 | Professor Leszek Starkel | advancing international understanding of palaeohydrology and geomorphology | Sydney Possuelo | contributions to Brazilian people’s rights and explorations in Amazonia |
| 2003 | Professor Michael Frank Goodchild | contributions to geographical information science | Harish Kapadia | contributions to geographical discovery and mountaineering in the Himalayas |
| 2002 | Bruno Messerli | mountain research and the public awareness of mountain issues | Dr David Keeble | advancing knowledge in economic and industrial geography |
| 2001 | Professor William Graf | research on dryland river processes, and the interactions of science and public policy | Reinhold Messner | mountaineering and mountain regions |
| 2000 | Professor Brian Robson | urban geography and geographical perspectives to urban policy | Sir Crispin Tickell GCMG KCVO | promoting the understanding of global environmental issues in governmental and wider public arena |
| 1999 | Professor Mike Kirkby | development of processed-based and modelling approaches in geomorphology | Doug Scott, CBE | mountaineering and the knowledge of mountain regions |
