Awards

Call for Nominations 2024

Nominations for the 2024 Awards opened on 1 July and will close on 30 September 2024.

In 2024, nominations are sought for the:

Career Excellence Medals (4)
Discipline Awards and Lectureships—Year B (4)
Scholarships, Early Career, and Student Awards (3)
Internal Awards —the RSNSW Citations (3) and the RSNSW Medal

Enquiries may be directed by email to the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Overview

Awards image 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 on 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.

RSNSW Awards from 2023

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. Please note that the nomination forms will be available on these pages before 30 June 2023.

Career Excellence Medals

RSNSW Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Scholars Medal
RSNSW James Cook Medal — for lifetime career contributions
RSNSW Edgeworth David Medal — for mid-career researchers
RSNSW Ida Browne Early Career Medal

Discipline Awards and Lectureships

These Awards are made on a three-yearly cycle, Years A, B and C, as indicated in the listing of the Awards, with Year A Awards commencing in 2023, Year B in 2024, and Year C in 2025.

The discipline awards by year of offer are as follows.

Year A (offered in 2023, 2026, 2029, ...)

RSNSW Clarke Medal and Lectureship in the Earth Sciences
RSNSW Walter Burfitt Award in Medical and Veterinary Sciences and Technologies
RSNSW Award in the Social and Behavioural Sciences
RSNSW Award in the History and Philosophy of Science

Year B (offered in 2024, 2027, 2030, ...)

RSNSW Pollock Award and Lectureship in the Physical Sciences and Mathematics
RSNSW Poggendorff Award and Lectureship in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
RSNSW Award in the Humanities, Philosophy, and Law
RSNSW Milner Interdisciplinary Award

Year C (offered in 2025, 2028, 2031, ...)

RSNSW Liversidge Award and Lectureship in the Chemical Sciences
RSNSW Warren Award in Engineering, Technology, Architecture, and Design
RSNSW Award in the Creative and Performing Arts
RSNSW Award in the Life Sciences