Media Release

Royal Society honours for two researchers

Two University of Adelaide researchers have been awarded prestigious medals by the Royal Society of South Australia for their outstanding scientific contributions.

Professor Martin Williams [1], Foundation Professor of Environmental Studies, from the University's School of Social Sciences [2] has been awarded the Royal Society's highest honour, the Verco Medal, for his outstanding research on landscape evolution and climate change.

And Professor Barry Brook [3], Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change within the University's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences [4], has been awarded the 2007 Andrewartha Medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to understanding climate change.

Royal Society of South Australia President Professor Allan Pring said: "The Verco Medal is the highest honour that the Royal Society can bestow on one of its Fellows. Only those who have made a significant, outstanding contribution to their field of study can receive the award. Because of the careful deliberation that goes with each award, the list of Verco Medallists represents a most revered, respected and outstanding collection of scientists."

Professor Williams came to the University of Adelaide in 1993 as Director of the Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies and Foundation Professor of Environmental Studies. He has conducted wide-ranging research on reconstructing environment and climate changes over the past two million years, the Quaternary period.

He is author of over 200 scientific papers and has authored or edited 11 books, including the significant text Quaternary Environments that has seen two editions and a Chinese edition.

He is a member of the Scientific and Technical Panel of the Global Environment Facility and has been frequent adviser to the World Bank, the Asia Development Bank and the UN International Development Programme on the control of desertification and land degradation in Africa, Central Asia and China.

His distinguished and sustained contributions to Quaternary research saw him recently elected an Honorary Member by the International Union of Quaternary Research [5], only the second Australian to receive this honour.

"The Andrewartha medal is awarded in recognition of outstanding research by a young Australian scientist under the age of 35," said Professor Pring.

Professor Brook has an international reputation for excellence in global change biology, extinction risk, tropical ecology, conservation genetics and wildlife management.

In 2006, at just 31, he was awarded a Personal Chair (Professor) less than seven years after completing his PhD and in 2007 he took up his current position at the University of Adelaide as Foundation Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change.

He has produced two authored books and over 100 scientific publications with the world's leading international scientific journals and publishers and, since 2001, he has been awarded nine ARC Discovery and Linkage grants totalling more than $3.2 million.

As Director of the University's Research Institute for Climate Change and Sustainability [6] he is bringing together researchers from across each of the University's five faculties to undertake research on reducing carbon emissions and developing adaptive strategies to respond to the anticipated impacts of climate change.

The Royal Society of South Australia, originally known as the Adelaide Philosophical Society, was formed in 1853 with 37 foundation members, changing its name in 1880. The Society has numbered among its members many famous scientists including Horace Lamb, Douglas Mawson, Edgar Waite, and William Bragg.