Royal Society honours for two

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, Foundation Professor of Environmental Studies,from the University's School of Social Sciences has been awarded the Royal Society's highest honour, the Verco Medal, for his outstanding research on landscape evolution and climate change. (See A close thing for mankind? story.)

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

"The Verco Medal is the highest honour that the Royal Society can bestow on one of its Fellows, " said Royal Society of South Australia President Professor Allan Pring.

"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."

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

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

Professor Brook's Andrewartha medal was presented last month.

Professor Williams will be presented with the Verco Medal at 6.30pm Thursday 11 October in the Royal Society Rooms, Morgan Thomas Lane, off Kintore Avenue, Adelaide. He will then give the Verco Lecture on "Living on the Edge: Human Response to Climate Change".

Story by Robyn Mills