Below is the full list of the 2024 winners of our Awards, Medals and Funds, honoured for their contributions to the geosciences and the geoscience profession.
Career Achievement Awards
Service and/or Outreach Awards
Mid-Career Awards
Early Career Funds
>> Find out more about our Awards, Medals and Funds
>> Read our press release regarding our 2024 winners
>> Watch the 2024 Awards Ceremony on YouTube
>> View our past winners
Citations & responses: President's Day Awards Ceremony, June 2024
Princess Buma-at (President's Award 2024)
I am delighted to present the first President's Award to Princess Buma-at a PhD student at the Department of Zoology and Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge. Princess Aira Buma-at is an early career Precambrian palaeontologist, who is already establishing herself as a role model in her field.
Princess began her PhD in Zoology at the University of Cambridge in October last year, with competitive funding from the Cambridge Climate Life and Earth NERC DTP studentship and the Department of Zoology Balfour studentship.
Her innovative research has focused on using high resolution analytical techniques and novel interdisciplinary approaches to advance our understanding of the origins of life. With an infectious enthusiasm for palaeontology and a talent for effortlessly translating geoscience to different audiences, Princess has an outstanding community profile. She has already presented at several international conferences and has attained an impressive record of academic and poster awards, as well as a Forbes Magazine interview.
Through her various volunteering positions and many service endeavours, Princess has demonstrated her passion and commitment to ensuring geoscience is an equitable, diverse, inclusive and accessible field.
Princess Buma-at, early in her career is already showing a great aptitude in her field and moreover, an exceptional capacity to collaborate and support the geoscience community – a great attribute for becoming a leader in the field. Please receive this President's Award with our congratulations.
Mónica Alejandra Gómez Correa (President's Award 2024)
The second President's Award goes to Mónica Alejandra Gómez Correa a PhD student at Hamburg University and a co-creator of the GeoLatinas Blog.
Paleoecologist, Mónica Alejandra Gómez Correa, is currently working on her PhD at Universität Hamburg, where her research project 'Response of microfossil communities to the Permo-Triassic climate crisis' is already providing crucial insights.
By bringing together sedimentological, fossil and geochemical records in her PhD research, Alejandra has been able to reconstruct and understand dramatic environmental changes in the marine realm throughout Earth's history, and the consequential responses of key faunal communities. This outstanding work is crucial to enabling us to better understand the response and impacts that anthropogenic climate change will have on our planet.
Alejandra has been awarded multiple competitive grants, including a UNESCO fellowship, and her work has achieved international recognition through her many talk invitations. She is also an influential advocate for diversity and representation in science communication. working to amplify diverse voices within the community. To this end, Alejandra co-created the GeoLatinas Blog and supports the initiative GeoTraductores – both resources that successfully created connections between GeoLatinas and minority serving networks.
Alejandra, alongside her exceptional early career research, she demonstrates herself to be an exemplary advocate for diversity within the geoscience community. She is a most worthy recipient of a President's Award.
Dr Luke Wedmore (William Smith Fund 2024)
The William Smith Fund is awarded to Dr Luke Wedmore at Verisk Extreme Event Solutions.
Dr Luke Wedmore is an expert in natural hazards, with a specialist interest in seismic hazard and risk. Since completing his PhD in 2017, Luke's research has continued to give new insights into the distribution of earthquakes, tectonic strain, seismic hazard, and continental rifting at multiple scales.
Through his work, he discovered a new tectonic plate and demonstrated that deformation is accommodated across faults in rift interiors much earlier than previously thought. Notably, during post-doctoral work at the University of Bristol, Luke co-produced research with colleagues in Malawi, Zambia and Uganda, which proved integral to improving resilience to earthquakes in Africa. He also co-developed a new framework for assessing seismic hazard in regions with few tectonic constraints based on mapping active faults.
Following a career in university research and teaching, Luke is now working in the insurance industry as a Risk Analyst at Verisk Extreme Event Solutions. With an exceptional contribution to geotectonics and the geoscience community early in your career, Luke Wedmore, please accept with our congratulations, the Lyell Fund of The Geological Society of London.
Dr Lara Mani (Murchison Fund 2024)
The Murchison Fund is awarded to Dr Lara Mani at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University.
Since completing her PhD at the University of Plymouth in 2018, Dr Lara Mani's work in volcanology has established her as a respected expert in her field, and a reputable figure for encouraging positive change.
Her work on global volcanic risk and risk communication has made fundamental contributions to the field of volcanology and its implications for society. Her research to identify the systemic risks posed by volcanic hazards and their interactions with global complex systems is significant in helping to prioritise regions for global monitoring, preparedness, and mitigation efforts. She is also a strong advocate for greater prioritisation of volcanic risk at the national and multilateral levels and has worked to better prepare the humanitarian sector to respond to volcanic crises.
Currently working as a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, Lara is continuing to develop a portfolio of risk communication research. Her work has seen her collaborate closely with international policymakers and stakeholders to prepare high-level policy briefs and working papers, and she has also put her evidence-base to work during a volcanic crisis.
Lara's work has been recognised with an array of funding and awards, including in the University of Cambridge Vice Chancellor's awards for her work with the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre to evaluate the crisis communication campaign during the 2021 eruption of La Soufriere, St. Vincent.
A keen collaborator, she has been a member of the committee of the Geological Society's Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group since 2022. Moreover, in 2023 she co-founded Global Volcano Risk Alliance, a charity which seeks to build global societal resilience to volcanic risk.
Lara Mani has made impressive contributions to the field of volcanology and demonstrate herself to be an exemplary collaborator, we are delighted to award her the Murchison Fund of The Geological Society of London.
Leonardo Muniz Pichel (Lyell Fund 2024)
The Lyell Fund of the Society is awarded this year to Dr Leonardo Muniz Pichel at the University of Bergen.
Despite finishing his PhD just five years ago, Dr Leonardo Muniz Pichel is already recognised as a leading expert in the field of salt tectonics. With an advanced ability to interpret complex geological systems, and a proficiency in seismic interpretation, field work, numerical and physical modelling, Leo has made significant advances in our knowledge of salt tectonics through his research. This is demonstrated though his development of sophisticated thermo-mechanical fully-scaled models of salt tectonics, which is being used to study salt bodies and salt-sediment interactions at different scales and geological settings and to improve our understanding of fundamental processes on salt deformation.
His expertise has led to his involvement in many international collaborations with academia and industry. He also jointly founded the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Special Interest Group on Salt in 2020 – the most important worldwide forum for scientific discussions on salt tectonics.
He is currently employed as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Bergen, and has an impressive publication record of over 25 publications in high impact journals. Leo Pichel you have made excellent contributions to the field of salt tectonic and the geoscience community early in your career, please accept the Lyell Fund with warmest congratulations.
Jennifer Jenkins (Wollaston Fund 2024)
The Wollaston Fund is awarded this year to Dr Jennifer Jenkins of Durham University.
Driven by wanting to answer some of the fundamental open questions about the structure and dynamics of Earth, seismologist Dr Jennifer Jenkins has produced impressive scientific results, with major implications for the origins of mantle plumes and plate tectonic cycles.
After completing her MESci Geophysics with Geology, Jenny achieved her PhD in Deep Earth Seismology from the University of Cambridge in 2017, with her thesis being awarded the Royal Astronomical Society's 2018 Keith Runcorn Prize for the Best Thesis in Geophysics.
Following three and a half years' of post-doctoral research, Jenny joined Durham University in 2021 as an Assistant Professor of Earth Science, where she works today. Her wealth of published work includes numerous studies of mantle seismic discontinuities which have the potential to become a standard references in solid earth geophysics and mineral physics. Her current work focuses on seismicity and volcanism in the underexplored remote central Iceland Highlands with a new deployment of seismic instruments.
As well as being on Durham Earth science department's Equality Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) committee Jenny is the British Geophysical Association's EDI Officer and where she is currently leading a project on promoting Geophysics in High schools.
Dr Jennifer Jenkins, demonstrates herself to be a dedicated and excellent seismologist alongside an exemplary commitment to improving EDI within the Geoscience community and we are thrilled to award her the Society's Wollaston Fund for 2023.
Prof John Howell (R H Worth Award 2024)
The R H Worth Award is conferred in recognition of achievements in outreach, public engagement and/or education carried out by an individual or an institution. It gives me great delight to present the 2024 RH Worth Award to Prof John Howell at Aberdeen University.
Professor John Howell is well known in the geoscience community for his work in the fields of sedimentology, sub-surface studies and virtual outcrop geology. For over 20 years, he has led the way in pioneering the use of virtual outcrops. In March 2020, he founded V3Geo – a purpose-built website that showcases over 350 3D virtual outcrop models. V3Geo is a true community resource, which has made geological outcrops freely accessible to the geoscience community. The fortuitous timing of the launch of V3Geo meant that field-based geoscience could continue, after it was effectively shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic.
John has been a professor at the University of Aberdeen since 2012, prior to which he was in Bergen (Norway) and Liverpool. He has supervised over 50 PhD students. His impressive collection of over 150 published papers covers a diverse range of topics – from stratigraphic overviews to detailed sedimentological observations with special emphasis on the development and application of virtual outcrop methods.
Throughout his career, John has demonstrated his passion for outreach, public engagement, and education. He co-hosted 'The Big Monster Dig', a Channel 4 series on geology and palaeontology, and has appeared on many other TV and radio programmes as a scientific expert.
In 2018, he received the BSRG Perce Allen Award in recognition his substantial contribution to Sedimentology and his role in developing new generations of sedimentologists and communicating sedimentological research to the public. His dedication to public outreach and engagement makes him the most worthy recipient and it gives me great delight to present John Howell with the R H Worth Award.
Prof John Howell replied:
Firstly, I would like to say how happy I was to hear that the Geological Society has secured its rightful home in Burlington House and to acknowledge the hard work and tenacity of the people who made that happen when so many thought it was a lost cause.
I am deeply honoured to receive this award. I have always been passionate about geological outreach and taking our fascinating subject to a wider audience is a privilege rather than a job. I was the first and only person in my family to go University and I chose geology because I thought it could provide a lifestyle with international travel and opportunities to work outside in the mountains. I was right, geology has taken me around the World to amazing places, introduced me to fantastic people and most importantly it has given me an in-depth perspective on the natural world. It has become a huge part of my life and a key part of my identity.
Geologists tend to see our planet in a totally different way to lay-people and I have always wanted to share that understanding, I think everyone should have the opportunity to understand the ground beneath their feet and the processes that have shaped it. Geoscience is central to everything we enjoy and the challenges we face in modern society.
As with any academic, the work that underpins this award is far from being solely mine. Any army of research students and co-workers have made invaluable contributions along the way. Most notably Simon Buckley and Nicole Nauman have been with me since the start of the VOG Group, from the early days when virtual outcrops were a niche research area to the present day when they have become mainstream. I would like to thank mentors Graham Williams and Steve Flint for showing me the way and then remaining good friends when I moved on.
Finally I would like to thank John Underhill and Peter Styles for nominating me for this award and my family for the continued love and support.
Jennifer Brzozowska (Distinguished Service Award 2024)
The next award is the Distinguished Service Award, which recognises the contributions of an individual by virtue of their professional, administrative, organisational or promotional activities. This year, the award goes to Jennifer Brzozowska.
Jen Brzozowska is well known throughout the UK and the wider Petroleum Industry for her immense contributions to oil and gas licensing and management of the UK's natural resource base.
After gaining MSc in micropalaeontology, Jen spent time at Robertson Research in Wales and the British National Oil Corporation (BNOC) in Glasgow before joining the Department of Energy early on in her career. She continued to work for the Government (in all its guises) for 40 years, including when it became the Oil & Gas Authority, with the title Head of Exploration Licence Management for three years before retiring in 2019. Anyone who has ever applied for, or administered, a petroleum production licence in the UK between 1979 and 2019 will have had the pleasure of dealing with Jen at some point.
Throughout her career, Jen gained huge respect for her resolve to manage the UK's Oil and Gas resources in the best national interest. The UK's petroleum licensing system in its current form is largely a result of Jen's leadership, and many aspects of this system have been copied in other parts of the world. She also helped devise, and implemented, the Fallow Initiative, which ensured full utilisation of resources in many work programmes, by making sure any unused acreage was handed back for relicensing. Jen's outstanding contribution was recognised by the awarding of an OBE in 2015 for services to Oil and Gas Infrastructure.
Jen Brzozowska, in honour of your noteworthy contributions to the oil and gas industry and management of the UK's natural resource base, please accept the Distinguished Service Award of the Geological Society of London.
Jen Brzozowska OBE replied:
I first saw fossils as a teenager on a family holiday in Dorset because my sister Liz was studying Thomas Hardy. That planted a seed, which grew to getting a good grade at GCSE with Mr Barter as a mentor, leading to studying Geology at Chelsea College with Paul Henderson as one of the lecturers. Next was an M.Sc. in Micropalaeontology at UCL, where Alan Lord tutored, and then an obvious path at the time was to Robertson Research in North Wales.
Getting married sent shoots in different directions. In a museum for a time, then learning as a Technical Assistant at BNOC. Selling Sunglasses at John Lewis in Oxford Street was an experience never to be repeated! Finally, to the Civil Service and the Department of Energy, in a variety of roles initially as a Geophysicist. I continued as a Geoscientist for 40 years, evaluating applications and issuing Licences for Oil and Gas Exploration.
I was involved in over 20 of the 33 rounds to date, organising two nearly as large as the 4th round.
A small team helped throughout, with managers including John Brooks, Simon Toole, and lastly Nick Richardson, who understood the constraints of the system when the OGA was formed. And although I retired in 2019, Geology is still present in the volunteering I do, sometimes in a surprising way. But there's a new stratigraphic layer of litter, which I struggle to clear.
It's sad that the oil industry is now vilified as being the main contributor to climate change; I remember the excitement when North Sea Gas was first introduced to the energy supply. Now I'm reluctant to say what work I did. That's why I was very surprised but incredibly honoured to be offered the Award for Distinguished Service, for which I thank the Geological Society and all those who've encouraged me throughout those years. Thank you!
Prof Iain Stewart (Coke Medal 2024)
We now come to the Coke medals awarded to geoscientists for their contributions to science, as well as significant service to geoscience, for example through administrative, organisational or promotional activities resulting in benefits to the community.
This year the Coke Medal is presented to Professor Iain Stewart. Through his teaching, research and broadcasting, Professor Iain Stewart has led the conversation on the geosciences being vital in addressing challenges to sustainable development, contributing fundamental insight in the field of active tectonics and geohazards.
After gaining his PhD in 1990, Iain taught geology at the West London Institute of Higher Education and then Brunel University, before moving to the University of Plymouth in 2004. It was at this time that he also began his successful broadcasting career, which has seen him present several BBC science programmes, including the BAFTA-nominated 'Earth: The Power of the Planet'. His advocacy and contributions in geo-communication have opened a career pathway for other geoscientists, and continue to help the broad geocommunity to recognise its importance.
He is currently Jordan-UK El Hassan bin Talal Research Chair in Sustainability at the Royal Scientific Society in Jordan. Until 2021, he was Director of the Sustainable Earth Institute at University of Plymouth, where he remains a Professor of Geoscience Communication. He is also Co-Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability at Ashoka University.
Amongst Professor Stewart's many accolades are: the 2016 European Federation of Geoscientists 'Medal of Merit', the 2015 Royal Society of Edinburgh Senior Public Engagement Award and in 2013 he received an MBE for services to geology and science communication.
Iain Stewart's enormous contributions to geo-communication and his service to the geoscience community, makes him the most worthy recipient of the Coke Medal, which we award it to him now with great pleasure and huge congratulations.
Prof Iain Stewart replied:
Hi Everyone! Sorry I can't be there with you, and with all the friends and colleagues that are amassed in that room sharing in the fun and festivities. But I'm here in the desert sending this message from Jordan where I'm based at the Royal Scientific Society.
At first glance, spending four years in the desert seems a pretty strange way to reset the button on my geoscience communication interests, but it's something I've done before. Back in 2002 I abandoned Brunel University and an academic world and I started trying to get television geology off the ground. It was a risky move, more risky than I thought at the time, but in a way the award of the Coke Medal today is part testament to the fact that decision back then, that leap of faith, worked.
I look fondly down that list of awardees and former recipients of the Coke Medal, because many of them are people that I've encountered in my work in that kind of TV geology land or have been enormously supportive. I always got nothing but support from the UK geology community in general, the Geological Society in particular, and especially its current President Ruth Allington so it's lovely and especially delightful to get this medal during Ruth's tenure.
But as I look down that list, there's one person that I'd really like to single out because the original plan, when I'd gone into TV land was to come back into university geology life. I thought it was going to be an easy transition back but in fact, in the short time that I'd been out the RAE, the REF (Research Excellence Framework), had basically created this fixation with research output, and had not that much interest in broader impact. It was Mark Anderson that rescued me from that oblivion and academic wilderness and offered me a job at Plymouth University, much against the advice of the Dean at the time because taking on someone that was messing with the media was a risky kind of move. In the years that followed Mark continued to be a huge supporter and champion of the work that I was doing so it's particularly fitting, I think, that it was Mark that received the Coke Medal way before me back in in 2017.
I'd like to thank the Geolsoc not just for the Coke Medal award and being able to celebrate weird mavericks like me that take these brave or perhaps crazy leaps of faith, but more importantly celebrate those that provide the safety net that allows the rest of us to take those kinds of leaps. So thank you Geolsoc and thank you Ruth. Thank you, Jenny and Heather. Thank you All. Congratulations to all the awardee and medallists today and have a fantastic day!
Professor Daniela Schmidt (Bigsby Medal 2024)
We now come to the Society's mid-career award, the Bigsby Medal, founded by Jeremiah Bigsby to be awarded 'as an acknowledgement of eminent services in any department of Geology'. I am pleased to award the 2023 Bigsby Medal to Professor Daniela Schmidt of the University of Bristol.
Through her teaching, research, outreach, and communication, internationally acknowledged climate scientist Professor Daniela Schmidt informs a wide community about the complex risks and vulnerabilities associated with climate change. With a focus on the effect that changes in ocean have on marine organisms, Daniela's esteemed research has resulted in the publication of over 100 papers, five book chapters, and eight commissioned reports. She was also lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change WGII 'Ocean Systems', which incorporates her research and coordinating lead author for the assessment on Europe – a remarkable achievement for a mid-career scientist.
Daniela joined the University of Bristol in 2005, where she is in post today. She has provided leadership for the institution as Research Director of the Faculty of Sciences.In addition to her teaching and research, Daniela is well known for her outreach and policy work and communication on climate change. She has briefed government agencies and industry in the UK, Ireland and Germany on climate change, and spoke at a G7 inclusion summit in Berlin in 2022. Alongside this she has also inspired youth climate action in the south-west UK through the 'Waves of Change' group, who were invited to the UN Climate Change Conference and to participate in the Green Futures at Glastonbury. In 2021, Daniela received The Micropalaeontological Society's Todd and Low Award for Teaching and Mentorship.
Her research is providing greater insight into climate change, and she is an inspiration to the next generation, please accept today the Bigsby Medal of The Geological Society of London. We present this with our congratulations and our confidence in Daniela's onward successful future in this vital work.
Prof Daniela Schmidt replied:
Firstly, I would like to thank the Geological Society of London for the honour of receiving this award and for the kind words about my scientific life. The recognition by my peers for my work and leadership means a lot to me and the indication that I am part of the UK Science community. I am grateful for the people who nominated me and spent the time putting this information together.
As a first generation academic, I would like to thank my sister Prof Bettina Schmidt, my mentors and colleagues all of whom have been incredibly important for my development as a scientist in Bremen where I started, via Zurich and RHUL to the University of Bristol. My father, a coal miner in the coal fields of the Ruhr, was not happy about my choice to become a geologist, but supported me fully when he recognised that my approach to the subject was very different than his experience of 35 years. My research has changed significantly since being classically trained as a micro-palaeontologist; I now work with communities across the UK to increase resilience to climate change and consider pathways to adaptation.
Such a meandering scientific path would have been impossible without a great, diverse and curious research group who enjoy the tension and synergies of working on deep time climate change impacts, modern coastal ecosystem and the legal, computer science, and modelling intersections of these questions and to whom I am indebted. Teamwork and diversity are fundamental to success in science today and I would like to thank them for the trust they have put in me to mentor them.
I could not have combined research, leadership in the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change and the University of Bristol with raising two children without the unwavering support of my husband Peter, who is my rock. I would have not been able to achieve the many things which led to this award without him. Thank you to all who made this happen.
Professor Robin Strachan (Dewey Medal 2024)
The Dewey Medal, made possible by a generous endowment from Professor John Dewey, is a lifetime achievement award. It is given to a geologist who has championed the use of classical geological mapping or field observations, and who has a strong record of training, leading and encouraging others to practise and pursue advances in geology by these means. This year, the Dewey Medal is awarded to Professor Robin Strachan of the University of Portsmouth.
With research interests lying in structural and metamorphic geology, tectonics and geochronology, Professor Rob Strachan is celebrated for his significant contributions through his work in field mapping and field observation of rocks. An outstanding collaborator, Rob takes a multidisciplinary approach in his research, collaborating with structural and metamorphic geologists and geochronologists to enrich the value of his field mapping conclusions.
Some of his most renowned work has been on Geological Survey mapping programmes, leading on, and participating in, a range of sheet-mapping projects during his career for the British and Greenland Geological Surveys. The international impact of these projects, through spin-off papers involving geochronology, structural, and metamorphic analysis, and regional synthesis, cannot be underestimated.
After gaining his PhD in 1982, Rob taught at Oxford Brookes University before joining the University of Portsmouth in 2003. He was appointed Emeritus Professor of Geology in the university's School of the Environment, Geography & Geosciences last year. At both universities he took a leading role in the organisation and running of countless undergraduate and postgraduate field trips and mapping projects.
Through his teaching, supervision, training, leadership, and writing, he has encouraged countless others to practise and pursue advances in geology. He also co-edited and part wrote a standard undergraduate textbook on British and Irish geology.
He was awarded the Coke Medal by the Geological Society in 2012 and the Clough Medal by the Edinburgh Geological Society in 2014.
For your significant contributions to geoscience through your work in field mapping and for being an inspiration to the next generation of geosciences, Rob Strachan we are delighted to present to you the Dewey Medal of The Geological Society.
Prof Rob Strachan replied:
Thank you so much. It really is a great honour to receive this prestigious award from the Geological Society. I am slightly embarrassed to be recognised for a career-long activity which for the great majority of the time really has not felt like work!
Of course, I owe a great deal to the support provided by numerous individuals and organisations over the years. My father and A-level teachers inspired my early interest in the natural landscape. During my BSc studies at Aberystwyth, I received superb fieldwork teaching from Bill Fitches, Alex Maltman, Denis Bates and Max Dobson. They inspired me to do a field-based PhD in the classic terrain of the Scottish Highlands and so I went to Keele where John Winchester, Graham Park and Bob Roach were influential mentors. Since then during my academic career at Oxford Brookes and Portsmouth my research studies have been firmly rooted in field-based projects, some supported by the British Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Greenland who are warmly thanked.
It has been an absolute pleasure to lead student field mapping training and mapping projects, doing my best to inspire students with a love of field geology and the great outdoors. As we know, these field courses are very formative experiences, and very often this leads to students developing a life-long passion for the subject. In all these activities I have been lucky enough to have worked with many valued colleagues, including Bob Holdsworth, Ian Alsop, Richard D'Lemos and Craig Storey. I have learned a huge amount from my research students. I have received excellent support from my wife Wendy.
I thank them all, those who nominated me for this award, and the Society.
Dr Martina Kölbl-Ebert (Sue Tyler Friedman Medal 2024)
The Sue Tyler Friedman Medal is awarded is for distinguished contributions to History of Geoscience.
In 2024 it is awarded to Dr Martina Kölbl-Ebert. Through her research, presentations, and many publications, Dr Martina Kölbl-Ebert has made a major contribution to the history of the geosciences and provided insight into groups of scientists that have often been overlooked.
Martina was amongst the first to champion the contribution of women to the development of geology in the 19th century. She has also given significant insight into the role of geologists and geology in Germany in the mid to late 20th century, and the history of the relationship between geologists, religion, and faith.
Having begun her career in geology and palaeontology research, Dr Kölbl-Ebert added the history of geology and natural sciences to her portfolio in the late 1990s. After obtaining a Habilitation degree in history of science in 2018, she taught history of geology at the University of Hamburg. She took up her current post as Academic Director at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at LMU, Munich in 2020.
By pioneering new perspectives through her work, Martina has stimulated discussion and understanding amongst historians of geology that may not otherwise have been advanced. Her unwavering commitment is reflected in her work with the International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences. She is also the current Secretary-General of the International Commission on the History of Geological Science.
Martina's current scientific projects include 'The geosciences in Germany 1933–1945'.
For your tremendous contribution to the history of the geosciences, particularly your insight into groups of scientists often overlooked Martina we are delighted to present to you the Sue Tyler Friedman Medal.
Dr Martina Kölbl-Eber replied:
Thank you so much, Madam President! Many thanks to The Geological Society of London for this award, and also particularly to those who have nominated me!
It was in this very room that I gave my very first talks on the history of geology. I am truly honoured to be the 2024 recipient of the Sue Tyler Friedman medal; an honour that becomes ever more apparent when reviewing the illustrious names of those historians of geoscience that came before me.
I would like to take up the occasion to also thank to those, without whom I would not be standing here today, as their encouragement and interest in my work early on, were crucial for me to embark on this scientific adventure. Hugh Torrens, Bernhard Fritscher, Martin Rudwick and David Oldroyd have helped me along in so many ways, that I am deeply indebted to them. The have been most kind and generous mentors to me.
History of geology has always only been a part time effort to me, as I earn my keep as a geologist and geosciences communicator. This prize is encouragement to press on and to continue my research, which is great fun indeed and a privilege. There is so much still to be done. Thank you very much!
Dr Jacqueline Skipper (William Smith Medal 2024)
The William Smith Medal celebrates outstanding achievement in the field of applied geology. This year we are delighted to present it to Dr Jacqueline Skipper.
Dr Jackie Skipper, Senior Consultant at the Geotechnical Consulting Group, is well known for her work as a consulting geologist in ground investigation and construction.
Following a first career in operating theatres and the field of medical crisis resource management, Jackie gained a degree in Geology with Engineering Geology in 1993, before gaining her PhD at Imperial College, London, in 2000.
Jackie's work has seen her provide significant input into major tunnelling and infrastructure projects including Crossrail (now the Elizabeth Line), Dublin Port Tunnel, Thames Water Tideway Project, the Northern Line Extension, Lower Thames Crossing, High Speed One and High Speed Two.
Her recent projects include investigations of risks related to running tunnels, large sand channels in cross passages, advising on instability investigations on a road infrastructure project, logging of deep boreholes in unusual London Clay Formation sediments, and input to other major construction projects in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.
She is highly regarded in the civil engineering industry for her effectiveness in disseminating her research knowledge to non-geologists. And although now 'semi-retired', organisations continue to seek her out for her knowledge, advice, and renowned training programmes. Jackie has lectured around the world and has spoken on radio and television programmes as a geological authority due to her knowledge, enthusiasm, and communication skills. She has also provided expert advice in a number of legal cases.
She is a great advocate of Project Specific Geological Training for project ground risk reduction and has done pioneering work in training geologists to recognise and consistently log the sub-units of the Lambeth Group and London Clay (strata found beneath the London and Hampshire Basins) in ground investigations.
In 2010 she received the Geological Society Engineering Group Award, in 2017 she was awarded the 18th Glossop Medal, and in 2020 she co-received the Geologists' Association Richardson Award.
For your exceptional contributions to the civil engineering industry and for sharing your knowledge and best practice with geologists and non-geologists alike, Jackie Skipper, it is my great pleasure to award you the William Smith Medal of The Geological Society.
Dr Jackie Skipper replied:
Thank you first of all, for all being here and thank you very much to the Geological Society for this great honour and to the staff team for running this event so successfully. Well done.
William Smith is one of my all-time heroes from when I first started to study geology so I'd like to thank my nominators the Engineering Group the Geological Society for the nomination, and also for their support over the years. I am also particularly grateful to my mum and dad, for uprooting me from London to Cornwall in the 1970s. As teenager, I was exposed to landscape geology, sedimentary processes, all of which were trying to kill me when I was investigating them and gave me a great introduction to ground risk!
Moreover, I'd like to thank my friends who got me through my PhD as a mid-life student – many in the audience will remember that essentially a PhD is a trial of your self-esteem, and I will be thanking all of these people personally if I have not done so already. I'd like specifically to mention Mike Black, formerly of the Crossrail who when I finished my Ph. D and thought I had completely educated myself into a paper bag, told me that I didn't have to take unemployment and should start training civil engineering consultants about the geology of London instead and that kind of led on to my life's work for which I am very grateful.
To my work friends and my colleagues, some of whom are here today cheering me on, especially those at the Geotechnical Consulting Group where I've worked since 2007. They have supported me in my apparently radical idea that training people in civil engineering projects at all levels about geology actually is a good idea which leads to improved communication across projects, optimised design, identifies ground risks, improves standards and saves money –
what's not to like!
Thank you so much for this medal and again for being here today.
Professor David Pyle (Murchison Medal 2024)
The medal named for Sir Roderick Impey Murchison is normally given to people who have made a significant contribution to geology by means of a substantial body of research and for contributions to 'hard' rock studies. This year it is conferred on Professor David Pyle of Oxford University.
Internationally recognised volcanologist Professor David Pyle has made monumental contributions through his outstanding research in physical volcanology, volcanic emissions (gases and aerosols), volcano dynamics, igneous geochemistry, petrology, and hazards.
By using pioneering methods to characterise and classify tephra fall deposits and infer erupted volumes, Professor Pyle has made significantly improved our understanding of volcanic deposits and processes. Through his innovative statistical analysis of volcanological data, he has established himself as the leading authority on eruption frequency, developing the now standard quantitative measure of eruption magnitude. Highlights of his work include his research on the frequency and triggers of eruptions, the geochemistry of gas emissions, the effects of volcanism on climate, environment and society, and on understanding volcanic risk.
David Pyle joined Oxford University in 2006 and was appointed to a personal Chair in Earth Sciences at Oxford in 2008 and was the first Academic Director of Oxford's Doctoral Training Partnership in Environmental Research from 2013–2022. He is a keen collaborator and is currently part of The Oxford Martin Programme on Rethinking Natural Resources. He was also Principal Investigator of a NERC urgency grant to investigate the 2020-21 eruption of the Soufriere St Vincent, supporting the University of the West Indies' emergency response.
Professor David Pyle's expertise has given immense benefit to the many PhD students he has advised and the early career researchers he has mentored from around the world. He has also sat on numerous peer review panels, including UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships, the Diamond Light Source, and the Royal Society senior research fellowships. His admirable commitment to public engagement has seen him write two popular books and curate two exhibitions – one on volcanoes at the Bodleian in 2017 and, more recently, one on the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa with Google Arts and Culture. He has also jointly led two flagship exhibits for the Royal Society summer science exhibitions in 2010 and 2023.
David Pyle has made monumental contributions through his outstanding research in physical volcanology and is an excellent collaborator and communicator in geoscience community. It is therefore with pleasure and greatest compliments that we present him with the 2024 Murchison Medal.
Professor David Pyle replied:
Thank you, Madam President, for those very kind words; and thank you to my nominators, collaborators and colleagues. News of the award was a complete surprise, and what a delight it is to be able to celebrate with the many people here, in the room.
Working in Universities is a huge privilege. But so much of the currency of we do is delivered critically, or in the passive tense, and it is rather overwhelming to hear these sorts of words. It is also extraordinarily humbling to see the list of previous recipients of this medal; and of course, full appreciation is due to Charlotte Murchison, who discovered mineralogy and geology at an early stage, and rescued her husband Roderick from a life of fox hunting and country pursuits. It is also very nice to have Martina Kölbl-Ebert, historian of science and authority on Charlotte Murchison, here today as another awardee.
Of course, this award is not just for me. As the saying goes 'it takes a village to raise a child'. This award is for the very many people who have also shared in this work, and helped to make it happen – collaborators, from students to senior colleagues; facilitators, without whom things wouldn't have happened; and family, friends, and colleagues. I would especially like to thank Tamsin, Alice and Dominic, without whom this work would have little purpose.
As a volcanologist, my reference points are often linked to events, places and times – eruptions that have shaped our lived experiences, or reshaped our understanding. Some of those most special places include first setting sight on a volcano, aged seven, in Chile; and a magical return thirty years later. The eruption of Mt St Helens in May 1980 – a birthday coincidence – and a six-week digging party some years later. And an extended, if unremarkable, tour to Montserrat in the Caribbean in1998 (the volcano had just entered an eruptive pause), and the long legacy of those events.
Finally, thank you to all those who have provided opportunities to do new things, and opened new doors, on the way – such as the exhibitions and publishing teams in the libraries and museums in Oxford; archivists and librarians in the UK, Caribbean and US; and the funders and panels who have seen the value in what we wish to do next.
Professor Lynne Frostick CBE (Lyell Medal 2024)
Named in honour of one of the 19th Century's most influential geologists, The Lyell Medal is normally given for contributions to 'soft' rock studies. In 2024 it is awarded to Professor Lynne Frostick.
With over 50 years' experience, sedimentologist Professor Lynne Frostick has firmly established herself as a key figure in Geoscience. A Chartered Geologist and Chartered Geographer, Professor Frostick has developed into a multidisciplinary environmental scientist motivated by the major environmental challenges facing mankind – notably flood and waste management.
Since achieving her PhD in 1973, Lynne has undertaken many roles in her field, including Director of the Hull Environment Research Institute and Director of the Centre for Adaptation and Sustainability. More recently she served as a Board Member of Environment Agency responsible for Flood and Coastal Risk Management and since 2014, has been in post as Emeritus Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Hull. Lynne's plethora of achievements includes receiving the 2009 UKRC Woman of Outstanding Achievement Award for leadership in STEM, chairing the government's expert group for women in STEM for more than five years, and being the first female Honorary Secretary and second female President of the Geological Society.
Lynne's research interests now lie in eco-hydraulics with a strong focus on predicting and modelling pollution and flood risk and in 2009 she received the Yorkshire Post's Environmental Champion Award. She has an outstanding record of research in sediment transport and is particularly celebrated for her investigations of the relationship between river development and tectonics in the African rifts. Lynne has written over 150 peer-reviewed papers, and edited several volumes notably the Geological Society Special Publication 'Desert Sediments: Ancient and Modern' and 'Tectonic Controls and Signatures in Sedimentary Successions: No. 20', part of the International Association of Sedimentologists Series. The esteem of Lynne's research was reflected in her appointment to two successive REF panels, and to the REF super-panel concerned with diversity and inclusion. Lynne has an honorary DSc from both Royal Holloway University and the University of Hull and was awarded a CBE in 2022 for her services to Flood Risk and Coastal Erosion Management.
Lynne Frostick's research excellence, her remarkable number of peer reviewed papers and her services to wider community make her the most worthy recipient of the Lyell Medal 2024 which is presented with warmest congratulations.
Professor Lynne Frostick replied:
Thank you very much. When I was first told that there was a move to award me the Lyell medal, I got a severe attack of imposter syndrome. I'm sure someday somebody will find me out – I don't know whether it's today or later, but someday.
It's such a privilege and an honour to be awarded this medal particularly in the Janet Watson Lecture Theatre. Janet was my mentor in London University, and she saved me many times from making wrong decisions, so I just wish she could have been here to be thanked for her help. She was a wonderful woman, and I still miss her to this day.
Thank you, Ruth who is the third female President of the Society for those wonderful words. I don't think my husband, Ian Reid, who's in the audience here would recognise me from those flattering words. My daughter is also here to see me received this award. Thank you both for coming with me.
I would like to give thanks to everyone who's helped me along the way starting with Aftab Khan, who I think is in the audience. He was my tutor at Leicester University when I was an undergraduate, and he was a great support to me – so thank you, Aftab. Since then my husband and I have met up with him several time, mainly in the Chalbi desert, either going north towards our research in the Kenyan rift or returning from it so we've kept in touch over the years.
I would also like to thank all the people at the University of East Anglia who supported me through my PhD. My supervisor there was Nick McCave, who's a previous recipient of this medal. But I was also helped by many other people there and supported along the way. It was a great place to do environmental science and to learn the advantages of cross disciplinary working, an approach that has never left me. I have worked with my husband across various geoscience projects and we have always loved working with other disciplines so I have had a truly enjoyable career. I really appreciate everyone who's helped and supported me, and also thank the Geological Society for giving me this Senior Award. I must admit sometimes I feel more past it than senior, but senior sounds better. Thank you all very much.
Professor Trond Helge Torsvik (Wollaston Medal 2024)
Finally, we come to the Wollaston Medal—the Society's senior medal and highest accolade, first awarded to William Smith in 1831. This medal is given to geoscientists who have had a significant influence by means of a substantial body of excellent research in either or both 'pure' and 'applied' aspects of the science. Today this award goes to Professor Trond Helge Torsvik of the University of Oslo.
Over the past four decades, Professor Trond Helge Torsvik has established himself as an exceptional figure in the field of plate reconstructions and geodynamics, and has made significant and lasting contributions to the study of the whole Earth.
Trond began his long and varied career as a Research Fellow at the University of Bergen's Institute of Geophysics in 1982. In 1999, he was made a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union for the series of classic palaeogeography papers he produced with his co-workers in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, Professor Torsvik became the first to quantitatively link the large low-velocity seismic structures in the deep mantle with the surface evolution of volcanism in the form of Large Igneous Provinces. This much-acclaimed linking of Earth's deep interior to the geological record is one of the most important advances in geosciences over the past two decades, and is credited with fundamentally changing our view of the solid Earth. He went on to expand the correlation to the eruption sites of diamond-bearing kimberlites, recognising the unique opportunity to constrain paleo-longitude in plate reconstructions for the first time. In his latest work, Trond has extended this exploration of surface geology and mantle processes to the evolution of Earth's atmosphere and carbon cycle through time.
Trond joined the University of Oslo in 2009, where he works today as a Professor in Geodynamics. He played a key role in the establishment of the university's Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics in 2013, and his mentorship and collaboration continues to impact a wide range of fields, from palaeontology to geophysics. He has also provided scientific leadership through roles at EGU and AGU, and at the European Research Council.
Past recognition of his huge scientific contributions includes the Leopold von Buch award in 2013 from the German Geological Society for outstanding contributions to the understanding of geodynamics and the Arthur Holmes Medal & Honorary Membership from the European Geosciences Union in 2015. Professor Trond Helge Torsvik, in acknowledgment of his outstanding contribution to fundamental advances in your field, is presented now with the 2024 Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society with warmest congratulations.
Prof Trond Helge Torsvik replied:
Thank you and first I'll thank the Geological Society for this great award. When I heard about it before Christmas, I said this was the best Christmas press I ever had - that said normally don't get many. We had a bottle of champagne to celebrate but could not tell anybody why as were told it had to be a secret until it was officially announced!
I looked at the list of former recipients, which was very astonishing and so I feel very humbled to be part of this list. I also looked towards the 3 or 4 previous Norwegian recipients, the most outstanding perhaps Victor Goldschmidt, the father of geochemistry whom I grew up knowing about in Norway as one of the most famous Norwegian scientists.
As a young student I was very curious, and I normally didn't hang around with the students but with all professors, and I started working with them and to collaborate with them. So many of the people I have to thank today are not with us any longer unfortunately.
Perhaps one of the most important was in palaeogeography. As a young man in Oxford, I was a geophysicist, but the geophysicists didn't really want to talk to me, so I ended up talking to stratigraphers and palaeontologists instead in particular Stuart McKerrow who we called Mac who had kind of retired but he became really the kick-off for me doing global palaeogeography. When he passed away, it was always arranged that I would start working with his former student, Robin Cocks who was the President of the Society around 2000 and I worked with him until he passed away last year so those are my influences on the paleogeography side.
Linking in with the deep earth, I also worked with semi-crazy English man who lived most of his life in America, called Kevin Burke – he was a very loud man. He has also passed away, but he really got me interested in linking the surface with the deep. I thank them all and I will come back to them in my lecture.
Thank you all again.