The William Brewster Memorial Award, usually referred to as the Brewster Medal, is awarded by the American Ornithologists' Union and is named for ornithologist William Brewster. It is given to an author, or coauthors who are not previous recipients, of an exceptional body of work on

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the te ...

birds. The award comprises a medal and an

honorarium An honorarium is an ''ex gratia'' payment, i.e., a payment made, without the giver recognizing themselves as having any liability or legal obligation, to a person for his or her services in a volunteer capacity or for services for which fees are no ...

provided through the William Brewster Memorial Fund. Established in 1919, the award was first given in 1921, to

Robert Ridgway Robert Ridgway (July 2, 1850 – March 25, 1929) was an American ornithologist specializing in systematics. He was appointed in 1880 by Spencer Fullerton Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to be the first full-time curator of bi ...

. From 1921 to 1937, it was given biennially; since then it has usually been made annually.AOU site
/ref>

List of winners

Source
AOU
{, - , valign="top" , * 1921:

(1850–1929) * 1923:

Arthur Cleveland Bent Arthur Cleveland Bent (November 25, 1866 – December 30, 1954) was an American ornithologist. He is notable for his encyclopedic 21-volume work, ''Life Histories of North American Birds'', published 1919-1968 and completed posthumously. Bent ...

(1866–1954) * 1925:

W. E. Clyde Todd Walter Edmond Clyde Todd (Smithfield, Ohio, September 6, 1874 – June 25, 1969) was an American ornithologist who worked at the Carnegie Museum. He collected specimens mainly in the arctic zone and was the author of several books. Biography In ...

(1874–1969) and

Melbourne Armstrong Carriker Melbourne Armstrong Carriker, Jr. (February 14, 1879 – July 27, 1965) was an American ornithologist and entomologist.

(1879–1965) * 1927:

John Charles Phillips John Charles Phillips (November 5, 1876 – November 14, 1938) was an American hunter, zoologist, ornithologist, and environmentalist. He published over two hundred books and articles about animal breeding, sport hunting, ornithology, wildlife ...

(1876–1938) * 1929:

Carl Eduard Hellmayr Carl Eduard Hellmayr (29 January 1878 in Vienna, Austria – 24 February 1944 in Orselina, Switzerland) was an Austrian ornithologist. Biography Hellmayr was born in Vienna and studied at the University of Vienna, although he did not complete h ...

(1878–1944) * 1931:

Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey (August 8, 1863September 22, 1948) was an American ornithologist, birdwatcher, and nature writer. Between 1890 and 1939, she published a series of field guides on North American bird life. These guides were often ...

(1863–1948) * 1933: Frank Chapman (1864–1945) * 1935: Herbert Lee Stoddard (1889–1968) * 1937:

Robert Cushman Murphy The whaling ship, ''Daisy'', which Murphy traveled on to the Antarctic Robert Cushman Murphy (April 29, 1887 – March 20, 1973) was an American ornithologist and Lamont Curator of birds at the American Museum of Natural History. He went on numer ...

(1887–1973) * 1938: Thomas Sadler Roberts (1858–1946) * 1939:

Witmer Stone Witmer Stone (September 22, 1866 – May 24, 1939) was an American ornithologist, botanist, and mammalogist, and was considered one of the last of the “great naturalists.” Stone is remembered principally as an ornithologist. He was preside ...

(1866–1939) (posthumous) * 1940: James L. Peters (1890–1952) * 1941:

Donald Ryder Dickey Donald Ryder Dickey (1887–1932) was an American ornithologist, mammalogist, and nature photographer. He collected 50,000 specimens and produced 7,500 photographs and moving images of nature subjects. At his death, his collection of bird and mam ...

(1887–1932) and

Adriaan Joseph van Rossem Adriaan Joseph van Rossem (December 17, 1892 in Chicago – September 4, 1949) was an American ornithologist of Dutch ancestry. He came from an affluent family where his father died very early in his life. Van Rossem went on to attend both pub ...

(1892–1949) * 1942: Margaret Morse Nice (1883–1974) * 1943:

Alden Holmes Miller Alden Holmes Miller (February 4, 1906 – October 9, 1965) was an American ornithologist and director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley for 25 years. He published over 250 papers on the biology, distribut ...

(1906–1965) * 1944: Roger Tory Peterson (1908–1996) * 1945:

Hans Albert Hochbaum Hans Albert Hochbaum (February 9, 1911, Greeley – March 2, 1988, Portage la Prairie) was an American bird artist, writer, ornithologist and conservationist known for his work on wetland birds and the wildlife of the Canadian Arctic. He wrote sever ...

(1911–1988) * 1946: ''No Award'' * 1947: Francis H. Kortright * 1948:

David Lack David Lambert Lack FRS (16 July 1910 – 12 March 1973) was a British evolutionary biologist who made contributions to ornithology, ecology, and ethology. His 1947 book, ''Darwin's Finches'', on the finches of the Galapagos Islands was a landm ...

(1910–1973) * 1949: ''No Award'' * 1950: Alexander Skutch (1904–2004) * 1951:

Samuel Charles Kendeigh Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bib ...

(1904–1986) * 1952:

John Todd Zimmer John Todd Zimmer (February 28, 1889 in Bridgeport, Ohio – January 6, 1957 in White Plains, New York) was a leading American ornithologist. A graduate of University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he took an early interest in both entomology and ornithology ...

(1889–1957) * 1953:

Hildegarde Howard Hildegarde Howard (April 3, 1901 – February 28, 1998) was an American pioneer in paleornithology, mentored by the famous ornithologist, Joseph Grinnell, at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) and in avian paleontology.Joyce Harvey & Marilyn ...

(1901–1998) * 1954:

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

(1900–1989) * 1955: William H. Phelps, Sr. (1875–1965) * 1956: George H. Lowery, Jr. (1913–1978) * 1957: Robert Porter Allen (1905–1963) * 1958: A. William Schorger (1884–1972) * 1959:

Alexander Wetmore Frank Alexander Wetmore (June 18, 1886 – December 7, 1978) was an American ornithologist and avian paleontologist. He was the sixth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Early life and education The son of a Country Physician, Frank Ale ...

(1886–1978) * 1960:

Donald Sankey Farner Donald Sankey Farner (May 2, 1915 Waumandee, Wisconsin – May 18, 1988) was an American ornithologist. He received his BS from Hamline University, and his MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He served in the Navy's Medical Servic ...

(1915–1988) * 1961: Harold F. Mayfield (1911–2007) * 1962: Albert Wolfson * 1963: Ralph S. Palmer (1914–2003) * 1964:

Herbert Friedmann Herbert Friedmann (April 22, 1900 – May 14, 1987) was an American ornithologist. He worked at the Smithsonian Institution for more than 30 years. In 1929 he became a fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and served as the Presiden ...

(1900–1987) * 1965:

Ernst W. Mayr Ernst Walter Mayr (; 5 July 1904 – 3 February 2005) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, philosopher of biology, and historian of science. His ...

(1904–2005) * 1966: George A. Bartholomew * 1967: W. E. Clyde Todd (also awarded in 1925) * 1968: Wesley E. Lanyon * 1969: ''No Award'' * 1970: ''No Award'' * 1971:

Charles Sibley Charles Gald Sibley (August 7, 1917 – April 12, 1998) was an American ornithologist and molecular biologist. He had an immense influence on the scientific classification of birds, and the work that Sibley initiated has substantially altered our u ...

(1917–1998) * 1972: David Snow and Barbara Snow * 1973: Rudolfo Armando Philippi Bañados and Alfred W. Johnson * 1974: James R. King , valign="top" , * 1975:

Jürgen Haffer Jürgen Haffer (9 December 1932 in Berlin – 26 April 2010 in Essen) was a German ornithologist, biogeographer, and geologist. He is most remembered for his theory of Amazonian forest refugia during the Pleistocene that would have contributed t ...

* 1976: Gordon Orians * 1977:

Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee (January 4, 1901 – April 24, 1984) was an American ornithologist. He was born in Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , ima ...

(1901–1984) * 1978:

Pierce Brodkorb William Pierce Brodkorb (September 29, 1908, Chicago – July 18, 1992, Gainesville, Florida) was an American ornithologist and paleontologist. Interested in birds since childhood, he was taught to prepare birds at the age of 16. Later, he rec ...

(1908–1992) * 1979: William R. Dawson * 1980: Frank Pitelka * 1981: William T. Keeton (1933–1980) * 1982:

Robert Ricklefs Robert Eric Ricklefs (born June 6, 1943) is an American ornithologist and ecologist. He was the Curators' Professor of Biology at the University of Missouri, St. Louis from 1996 until August 2019. Education Born in 1943, he grew up near Monterey, ...

* 1983: John W. Fitzpatrick and Glen E. Woolfenden * 1983: Peter R. Grant * 1986: Val Nolan, Jr. * 1987: Jerram L. Brown * 1988: Robert B. Payne * 1989: Noel F. R. Snyder * 1990: Fred Cooke * 1991: Lewis W. Oring * 1992: Ned K. Johnson * 1993:

Richard T. Holmes Richard T. Holmes is an American ornithologist. He was the 2002 recipient of the Cooper Ornithological Society’s Loye and Alden Miller Research Award, which is given in recognition of lifetime achievement in ornithological research. He was also ...

* 1994: D. Frank McKinney * 1995: Eugene S. Morton * 1996: Kenneth P. Able * 1997:

John Avise John Charles Avise (born 1948) is an American evolutionary geneticist, conservationist, ecologist and natural historian. He is a Distinguished Professor of Ecology & Evolution, University of California, Irvine, and was previously a Distinguished Pr ...

* 1998: Frank B. Gill * 1999: Walter D. Koenig * 2000: Cynthia Carey * 2001: Stephen I. Rothstein * 2002: James N. M. Smith * 2003: Douglas W. Mock * 2004: Russell Balda and Alan Kamil * 2005: Robert M. Zink * 2006: Sidney A. Gauthreaux * 2007: Allan J. Baker * 2008: Spencer Sealy * 2009: Joanna Burger * 2010: Steven Robert Beissinger * 2011: Sandra L. Vehrencamp * 2012: Robert C. Fleischer * 2013: James Van Remsen, Jr. * 2014:

Geoffrey E. Hill Geoffrey, Geoffroy, Geoff, etc., may refer to: People * Geoffrey (name), including a list of people with the name * Geoffroy (surname), including a list of people with the name * Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095–c. 1155), clergyman and one of the m ...

* 2015: B. Rosemary Grant * 2016: Patricia G. Parker * 2017: James D. Nichols * 2018: Bette A. Loiselle * 2019:

Helen F. James Helen Frances James (born May 22, 1956) is an American paleontology, paleontologist and paleornithology, paleornithologist who has published extensively on the fossil birds of the Hawaiian Islands. She is the Curator, curator in charge of birds ...

& Craig Benkman * 2020 Regina Macedo, John Rotenberry * 2021 Marty Leonard, Kathy Martin

References

Ornithology awards Awards established in 1919

List of winners

See also

References