The Royal Society of NSW (RSNSW) is delighted to learn of the announcement in London by the Royal Society that one of its Fellows, Emeritus Professor Herbert Huppert FRS FRSN, has just been awarded the 2020 Royal Medal for Physical Sciences. The Royal Medals are awarded on behalf of the Queen each year, and have been issued annually since 1825. The RSNSW Council extends its warmest congratulations to Professor Huppert on this recognition of his outstanding career achievements.

The citation for Professor Huppert reads: “ He has been at the forefront of research in fluid mechanics. As an applied mathematician he has consistently developed highly original analysis of key natural and industrial processes. Further to his research, he has chaired policy work on how science can help defend against terrorism, and Carbon Capture and Storage in Europe.”

Professor Huppert is an Australian-born geophysicist who lives in the United Kingdom. He has been the Professor of Theoretical Geophysics and Foundation Director, Institute of Theoretical Geophysics, at the University of Cambridge, since 1989 and a Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, since 1970. He has published widely using fluid-mechanical principles in applications to the Earth sciences: in meteorology, oceanography and geology. In 1987, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and was awarded the Society’s Bakerian Medal in 2011. He was awarded the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London in 2007 and is the only non-American recipient of a prize from the United States National Academy of Sciences, being awarded the Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship for contributions to the Earth sciences in 2005. Professor Huppert is also a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Physical Society and the Academia Europaea. He is currently an Emeritus Professor at Cambridge and holds visiting professorial appointments at Bristol University and UNSW Sydney.