Professor Ros Rickaby and alumni honoured

The Department of Earth Sciences was well represented yesterday at the annual President’s Awards of the Geological Society.

Professor Ros Rickaby received the Society’s prestigious Lyell Medal, awarded for contributions to ‘soft’ rock studies. It was established under the will and codicil of Sir Charles Lyell (1797 – 1875), the author of Principles of Geology, which popularised the idea of uniformitarianism.

Three of our alumni were also honoured at the ceremony.

Caroline Lear (Univ 1994), Professor in Earth Science at Cardiff University, received the Bigsby Medal. Founded by John Jeremiah Bigsby (1792 – 1881), the medal is awarded ‘as an acknowledgement of eminent services in any department of Geology, irrespective of the receiver’s country.’ The recipient of the medal must have done no more than 25 years’ full time equivalent research, ‘thus probably not too old for further work, and not too young to have done much’.

Richard Walters (Exeter 2004), Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Durham, received the William Smith Fund, awarded to early career geoscientists who have made excellent contributions to geoscience research and its application, in the UK and internationally.

Andrew Smye (St Edmund Hall 2003), Pennsylvania State University, received one of two President’s Awards, conferred upon early career geoscientists who are within five years of the award of their first degree in geoscience or a cognate subject, who show significant early promise and are judged to have potential to be future leaders in their fields.

The full list of medal winners can be viewed on the website of the Geological Society of London.