Awards
Overview
The Royal Society of New South Wales has long recognised distinguished achievements in various fields of knowledge through its Awards. Some are amongst the oldest in Australia while others are more recent. From its Act of Incorporation in 1881, the Society’s mission has been to encourage “studies and investigations in Science, Art, Literature and Philosophy”.
In 2023, the Society determined to broaden and streamline its Awards portfolio to recognise recent and evolving fields and disciplines, and emerging as well as established stars.
From 2023, the Society Awards are made in two main classes reflecting the Society’s history: Career Excellence Medals and Discipline Awards and Medals; with additional Awards, Scholarships, and Citations, including Internal Awards for distinguished service to the Society and community.
External nominations are most welcome for all but the Internal and Discretionary Awards which require both the nominator and seconder to be Members or fellows of the Society. Conditions and nomination forms are listed at each Award’s individual webpage, together with some guidance notes.
Nominations for all available Awards open on 1 July each year and close on 30 September
Awardees are announced by the end of that calendar year with formal presentations of their Awards in the following year. All nominations require a nominator and a seconder. All RSNSW awards are assessed relative to opportunity.
Information about historical Awards and their winners prior to 2023 is available from the preceding link.
Current RSNSW Awards
The new program comprises four categories of awards, with individual awards within each category itemised as follows. Follow the links to information pages and relevant nomination forms for each individual award.
Recent Winners
Each year, the Society makes a number of awards that are among the oldest and most prestigious awards in Australia.
Award Winners 2024
The Awards for 2024 were announced at the 1328th Ordinary General Meeting of the Society, held on Wednesday, 4 December 2024.
Listed below are the winners for 2024. Detailed information about each of the awards and their recipients can be found on the Recent Winners page.
RSNSW Career Excellence Awards
RSNSW James Cook Medal—Scientia Professor George Paxinos AO DistFRSN FAA FASSA FAHMS
RSNSW Edgeworth David Medal—Professor Yansong Shen
RSNSW Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Scholars Medal—Professor Jason Sharples FRSN FTSE
RSNSW Ida Browne Early Career Medal—Dr Xuan Li
RSNSW Discipline Awards and Lectureships
RSNSW Pollock Award and Lectureship in the Physical Sciences and Mathematics—Professor Nalini Joshi AO FRSN FAA FAustMS
RSNSW Poggendorff Award and Lecture in Agricultural and Environmental Science—Professor Alexander McBratney AO FAA
RSNSW Award in the Humanities, Philosophy, and Law—Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO FASSA FAAL
RSNSW Milner Interdisciplinary Award—Professor Katherine Boydell FASSA
RSNSW Scholarships, Early Career, and Student Awards
RSNSW Bicentennial Postgraduate Scholarships
—Mr Muyang Li Bailey (University of Sydney)
—Mr Joel Sved (University of Sydney)
— Ms Linqing Tian (UNSW Sydney)
RSNSW Bicentennial Early Career Research and Service Citations
—Dr Fei Deng (UNSW Sydney)
—Dr Jennifer Matthews (University of Technology Sydney)
—Dr Cynthia Turnbull (Australian National University)
RSNSW Jak Kelly Award
—Mr David Sweeney (University of Sydney)
RSNSW Service Awards
RSNSW Medal—Emeritus Scientia Professor Eugenie Lumbers AM DistFRSN FAA
RSNSW Citation—Ms C. Hannah Hibbert
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