The Gold Medal are the most prestigious of the awards presented by the Royal Geographical Society

Royal Geographical Society

The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...

. The Gold Medal is not one award but consists 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

Geography

Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

 and discovery", and requires 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

David Livingstone

David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...

 (1855), Nain Singh Rawat (1877), Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen

Ferdinand von Richthofen

Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen was a German traveller, geographer, and scientist.-Biography:He was born in Carlsruhe, Prussian Silesia, and was educated in Breslau and Berlin. He traveled or studied in the Alps of Tyrol and the Carpathians in Transylvania...

 (1878) and Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist...

 (1892) to more recent winners including Professor William Morris Davis

William Morris Davis

William Morris Davis was an American geographer, geologist, geomorphologist, and meteorologist, often called the "father of American geography"....

 (1919), Sir Halford John Mackinder

Halford John Mackinder

Sir Halford John Mackinder PC was an English geographer and is considered one of the founding fathers of both geopolitics and geostrategy.-Early life and education:...

 (1945), Professor Richard Chorley

Richard Chorley

Richard John Chorley was a leading figure in the late 20th century for his work in quantitative geography, and played an instrumental role in bringing in the use of systems theory to geography.-Early Education:...

 (1987) and Professor David Harvey

David Harvey (geographer)

David Harvey is the Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York . A leading social theorist of international standing, he received his PhD in Geography from University of Cambridge in 1961. Widely influential, he is among the top 20 most cited...

 (1995).

Past recipients

Date	Founder's Medal	Contribution	Patron's Medal	Contribution
2007	Professor Roger Barry	international leadership of research on climate and climate change	Professor Paul Curran	international development of geographical science through remote sensing and Earth observation
2006	Professor Derek Gregory Derek Gregory Derek Gregory Ph.D. FBA, FRCC is an influential British academic and geographer who is currently Professor of Political Geography at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He formerly held positions at the University of Cambridge.Gregory is best known for his book The Colonial...	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 Nicholas Shackleton Sir Nicholas John Shackleton FRS was a British geologist and climatologist who specialised in the Quaternary Period...	research on Quaternary palaeoclimatology	Professor Jean Malaurie Jean Malaurie Jean Malaurie was born on December 22, 1922 in Mainz . He is a French cultural anthropologist, geographer, physicist and writer, as well as the Director and founder of the Terre Humaine series .- Biography :...	lifelong study of the Arctic and its peoples
2004	Professor Leszek Starkel	advancing international understanding of palaeohydrology and geomorphology	Sydney Possuelo Sydney Possuelo Sydney Ferreira Possuelo is a Brazilian explorer, social activist and ethnographer who is considered the leading authority on Brazil's remaining isolated Indigenous Peoples....	contributions to Brazilian people’s rights and explorations in Amazonia
2003	Professor Michael Frank Goodchild Michael Frank Goodchild Michael Frank Goodchild is a British-American geographer. He is currently a professor of geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara...	contributions to geographical information science	Harish Kapadia Harish Kapadia Harish Kapadia is a distinguished Himalayan Mountaineer from India. He has been awarded the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographic Society, UK and the Life Time Achievement Award for Adventure by the President of India and the King Albert Mountain Award presented by The King Albert I Memorial...	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 Reinhold Messner Reinhold Messner is an Italian mountaineer and explorer from Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol "whose astonishing feats on Everest and on peaks throughout the world have earned him the status of the greatest climber in history." He is renowned for making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest without...	mountaineering and mountain regions
2000	Professor Brian Robson	urban geography and geographical perspectives to urban policy	Sir Crispin Tickell Crispin Tickell Sir Crispin Tickell, GCMG, KCVO, MA , DSc , FRSGS , FRIBA , FZS, FRI , FCIWEM is a British diplomat, environmentalist, and academic.-Background:...  GCMG KCVO	promoting the understanding of global environmental issues in governmental and wider public arena
1999	Professor Mike Kirkby Mike Kirkby Mike Kirkby is a British geographer and emeritus professor of physical geography based at the University of Leeds.Mike became a professor of physical geography at the University of Leeds in 1973 and was Head of Department for the School of Geography for three terms, from 1978 to 1981, from 1984 to...	development of processed-based and modelling approaches in geomorphology	Doug Scott Doug Scott Douglas Keith Scott CBE, known as Doug Scott , is an English mountaineer noted for the first ascent of the south-west face of Mount Everest on 24 September 1975. Scott and Dougal Haston were the first Britons to climb Everest during this expedition... , CBE	mountaineering and the knowledge of mountain regions

External links

• List of Past Gold Medal Winners