Rita Ann Moden Gardner, (born 10 November 1955) is a British geographer and academic, specialising in geomorphology. Since January 2019, she has been Chief Executive of the Academy of Social Sciences. She taught at

St Catherine's College, Oxford St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford and is the newest college admitting both undergraduate and graduate students. Tracing its roots back to 1868 (although t ...

(1978–1979),

King's College, London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King G ...

(1979–1994), and finally at Queen Mary and Westfield College (1994–1996) where she was

Reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

in Environmental Science. From 1996 to 2018, she was Director of the Royal Geographical Society: she was the learned society's first female director.

Honours

In the

2003 New Year Honours The 2003 New Year's Honours List is one of the annual New Year Honours, a part of the British monarch's honours system, where 1 January is marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of ot ...

, Gardner was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE) "for services to geography". She is a

Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

(FRGS), and a

Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences The Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) is an award granted by the Academy of Social Sciences to leading academics, policy-makers, and practitioners of the social sciences. Fellows were previously known as Academicians and used the ...

(FAcSS). In 2016, she was awarded the Scottish Geographical Medal, the highest honour of the

Royal Scottish Geographical Society The Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) is an educational charity based in Perth, Scotland founded in 1884. The purpose of the society is to advance the subject of geography worldwide, inspire people to learn more about the world around ...

, in recognition "of her outstandingly successful work in promoting Geography – in academic research, in schools, and in public life". She was also made an Honorary Fellow of the

(FRSGS) in 2016.

Selected works

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner, Rita 1955 births Living people British geomorphologists British women academics Women geographers 20th-century geographers Academics of the University of Oxford Academics of King's College London Academics of Queen Mary University of London Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences Fellows of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society