The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

. The medal is named after

William Hyde Wollaston William Hyde Wollaston (; 6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) was an English chemist and physicist who is famous for discovering the chemical elements palladium and rhodium. He also developed a way to process platinum ore into malleable in ...

, and was first awarded in 1831. It was originally made of gold (1831–1845), then

palladium Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself nam ...

, a metal discovered by Wollaston (1846–1860). Next in gold again (1861–1929) and then in palladium again (1930–present).

Laureates

Sourc
Geological Society

1831–1850

*1831 William 'Strata' Smith *1835

Gideon Mantell Gideon Algernon Mantell MRCS FRS (3 February 1790 – 10 November 1852) was a British obstetrician, geologist and palaeontologist. His attempts to reconstruct the structure and life of '' Iguanodon'' began the scientific study of dinosaurs: in ...

*1836

Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...

*1837 Proby Thomas Cautley *1837 Hugh Falconer *1838

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Ow ...

*1839

Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (19 April 1795 – 27 June 1876) was a German naturalist, zoologist, comparative anatomist, geologist, and microscopist. Ehrenberg was an evangelist and was considered to be of the most famous and productive sci ...

*1840 André Hubert Dumont *1841

Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart () FRS FRSE FGS (14 January 1801 – 18 February 1876) was a French botanist. He was the son of the geologist Alexandre Brongniart and grandson of the architect, Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart. Brongniart's pioneeri ...

*1842 Leopold von Buch *1843

Jean-Baptiste Élie de Beaumont Jean-Baptiste Armand Louis Léonce Élie de Beaumont (25 September 1798 – 21 September 1874) was a French geologist. Biography Élie de Beaumont was born at Canon, in Calvados. He was educated at the Lycee Henri IV where he took the f ...

*1843

Pierre Armand Dufrenoy Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

*1844 William Conybeare *1845 John Phillips *1846 William Lonsdale *1847 Ami Boué *1848

William Buckland William Buckland DD, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian who became Dean of Westminster. He was also a geologist and palaeontologist. Buckland wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named ' ...

*1849 Joseph Prestwich *1850 William Hopkins

1851–1900

*1851

Adam Sedgwick Adam Sedgwick (; 22 March 1785 – 27 January 1873) was a British geologist and Anglican priest, one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Cambrian and Devonian period of the geological timescale. Based on work which he did on ...

*1852 William Henry Fitton *1853 Adolphe d'Archiac *1853 Édouard de Verneuil *1854 Richard John Griffith *1855

Henry De la Beche Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche KCB, FRS (10 February 179613 April 1855) was an English geologist and palaeontologist, the first director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, who helped pioneer early geological survey methods. He was the ...

*1856

William Edmond Logan Sir William Edmond Logan, FRSE FRS FGS (20 April 1798 – 22 June 1875), was a Canadian-born geologist and the founder and first director of the Geological Survey of Canada. Life William Edmond Logan was born into a well-to-do Montreal family ...

*1857 Joachim Barrande *1858 Hermann von Meyer *1859

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

*1860 Searles Valentine Wood *1861

Heinrich Georg Bronn Heinrich Georg Bronn (3 March 1800 – 5 July 1862) was a German geologist and paleontologist. He was the first to translate Charles Darwin's ''On the Origin of Species'' into German in 1860, although not without introducing his own interpretation ...

*1862

Robert Alfred Cloyne Godwin-Austen Robert Alfred Cloyne Godwin-Austen FRS (17 March 1808 – 25 November 1884) was an English geologist. Godwin-Austen was the eldest son of Sir Henry E. Austen. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow in 1830. He afte ...

*1863

Gustav Bischof Karl Gustav Bischof (January 18, 1792 – November 30, 1870) was a German chemist, born in Nuremberg. He studied at Erlangen where he became a university lecturer ("Privatdozent") in 1815. In 1819 he was appointed to the position of an extr ...

*1864

Roderick Murchison Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet, (19 February 1792 – 22 October 1871) was a Scottish geologist who served as director-general of the British Geological Survey from 1855 until his death in 1871. He is noted for investigating and d ...

*1865 Thomas Davidson *1866

Charles Lyell Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known as the author of '' Principles of Geol ...

*1867 George Poulett Scrope *1868 Carl Friedrich Naumann *1869 Henry Clifton Sorby *1870 Gérard Paul Deshayes *1871 Andrew Ramsay *1872

James Dwight Dana James Dwight Dana FRS FRSE (February 12, 1813 – April 14, 1895) was an American geologist, mineralogist, volcanologist, and zoologist. He made pioneering studies of mountain-building, volcanic activity, and the origin and structure of contine ...

*1873 Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton *1874

Oswald Heer Oswald Heer (or Oswald von Heer) (31 August 1809 – 27 September 1883), Swiss geologist and naturalist, was born at Niederuzwil in Canton of St. Gallen and died in Lausanne. Biography Oswald Heer was educated as a clergyman at Halle and t ...

*1875 Laurent-Guillaume de Koninck *1876

Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The stor ...

*1877 Robert Mallet *1878 Thomas Wright *1879 Bernhard Studer *1880 Auguste Daubrée *1881

Peter Martin Duncan Peter Martin Duncan FRS (20 April 1821 – 28 May 1891) was an English palaeontologist. Biography Duncan was born at Twickenham on 20 April 1821, his father, Peter King-Duncan, a descendant of an old Scottish family, being a leather mercha ...

*1882 Franz Ritter von Hauer *1883 William Thomas Blanford *1884

Albert Jean Gaudry Jean Albert Gaudry (16 September 1827 – 27 November 1908) was a French geologist and palaeontologist. He was born at St Germain-en-Laye, and was educated at the Catholic Collège Stanislas de Paris. He was a notable proponent of theistic evolut ...

*1885 George Busk *1886

Alfred Des Cloizeaux Alfred Louis Olivier Legrand Des Cloizeaux (17 October 18176 May 1897) was a French mineralogist. Des Cloizeaux was born at Beauvais, in the department of Oise. He studied with Jean-Baptiste Biot at the Collège de France. He became professor ...

*1887 John Whitaker Hulke *1888 Henry Benedict Medlicott *1889 Thomas George Bonney *1890 William Crawford Williamson *1891

John Wesley Judd John Wesley Judd (18 February 1840 – 3 March 1916) was a British geologist. He was born in Portsmouth the son of George and Jannette Judd and educated at the Royal School of Mines, where he later became Professor of Geology. He was elected ...

*1892

Ferdinand von Richthofen Baron Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen (5 May 18336 October 1905), better known in English as was a German traveller, geographer, and scientist. He is noted for coining the terms "Seidenstraße" and "Seidenstraßen" = " Silk Road(s)" or "Silk ...

*1893 Nevil Story Maskelyne *1894 Karl Alfred von Zittel *1895

Archibald Geikie Sir Archibald Geikie (28 December 183510 November 1924) was a Scottish geologist and writer. Early life Geikie was born in Edinburgh in 1835, the eldest son of Isabella Thom and her husband James Stuart Geikie, a musician and music critic. Th ...

*1896

Eduard Suess Eduard Suess (; 20 August 1831 - 26 April 1914) was an Austrian geologist and an expert on the geography of the Alps. He is responsible for hypothesising two major former geographical features, the supercontinent Gondwana (proposed in 1861) and t ...

*1897

Wilfred Hudleston Hudleston Wilfred Hudleston Hudleston FRS (né Simpson) (2 June 1828 – 29 January 1909) was an English geologist, ornithologist and paleontologist. Life Hudleston was born at York on 2 June 1828. He was the eldest son of John Simpson of Knaresborough ( ...

*1898 Ferdinand Zirkel *1899 Charles Lapworth *1900

Grove Karl Gilbert Grove Karl Gilbert (May 6, 1843 – May 1, 1918), known by the abbreviated name G. K. Gilbert in academic literature, was an American geologist. Biography Gilbert was born in Rochester, New York and graduated from the University of Rochester. D ...

1901–1950

*1901

Charles Barrois Charles Eugene Barrois (21 August 18515 November 1939) was a French geologist and palaeontologist. Life Barrois was born at Lille and educated at the Jesuit College of St Joseph in that town, where he studied geology under Professor Jules ...

*1902

Friedrich Schmidt Carl Friedrich Schmidt may refer to: * Carl Friedrich Schmidt (artist) (1811–1890), German botanical artist and lithographer * Carl Friedrich Schmidt (geologist) (1832–1908), Baltic German geologist and botanist See also * Carl Friedrich Schmi ...

*1903 Heinrich Rosenbusch *1904 Albert Heim *1905 Jethro Teall *1906 Henry Woodward *1907 William Johnson Sollas *1908 Paul Heinrich von Groth *1909 Horace Bolingbroke Woodward *1910

William Berryman Scott William Berryman Scott (February 12, 1858 – March 29, 1947) was an American vertebrate paleontologist, authority on mammals, and principal author of the White River Oligocene monographs. He was a professor of geology and paleontology at P ...

*1911 Waldemar Christofer Brøgger *1912 Lazarus Fletcher *1913 Osmond Fisher *1914 John Edward Marr *1915

Edgeworth David Sir Tannatt William Edgeworth David (28 January 1858 – 28 August 1934) was a Welsh Australian geologist and Antarctic explorer. A household name in his lifetime, David's most significant achievements were discovering the major Hunte ...

*1916 Alexander Karpinsky *1917

Alfred Lacroix Antoine François Alfred Lacroix (4 February 186312 March 1948) was a French mineralogist and geologist. He was born in Mâcon, Saône-et-Loire. Education Lacroix completed a D. s Sc. in Paris in 1889, as student of Ferdinand André Fouqué ...

*1918

Charles Doolittle Walcott Charles Doolittle Walcott (March 31, 1850February 9, 1927) was an American paleontologist, administrator of the Smithsonian Institution from 1907 to 1927, and director of the United States Geological Survey.Wonderful Life (book) by Stephen Jay G ...

*1919 Aubrey Strahan *1920 Gerard De Geer *1921

Ben Peach Benjamin Neeve Peach (6 September 1842 – 29 January 1926) was a British geologist. Life Peach was born at Gorran Haven in Cornwall on 6 September 1842 to Jemima Mabson and Charles William Peach, an amateur British naturalist and geologi ...

*1921 John Horne *1922 Alfred Harker *1923 William Whitaker *1924 Arthur Smith Woodward *1925

George William Lamplugh George William Lamplugh (8 April 1859 – 9 October 1926) was a British geologist. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1905 and won the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society in 1925. He was awarded the Bigsby Medal in 1901. L ...

*1926

Henry Fairfield Osborn Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sr. (August 8, 1857 – November 6, 1935) was an American paleontologist, geologist and eugenics advocate. He was the president of the American Museum of Natural History for 25 years and a cofounder of the American E ...

*1927

William Whitehead Watts Prof William Whitehead Watts FRS HFRSE FGS FMS LLD (7 June 1860 – 30 July 1947) was a British geologist. Life He was born near Broseley in Shropshire, the eldest of two sons of Isaac Watts, but then a music master, and his wife, Maria Whitehea ...

*1928 Dukinfield Henry Scott *1929 Friedrich Johann Karl Becke *1930 Albert Seward *1931 Arthur William Rogers *1932

Johan Herman Lie Vogt Johan Herman Lie Vogt (14 October 18583 January 1932) was a Norwegian geologist and petrologist. Vogt was a professor at the University of Oslo and at the Norwegian Institute of Technology. Biography Vogt was born in Tvedestrand, Norway. He was a ...

*1933 Marcellin Boule *1934 Henry Alexander Miers *1935 John Flett *1936

Gustaaf Adolf Frederik Molengraaff Gustaaf Adolf Frederik Molengraaff (27 February 1860 – 26 March 1942) was a Dutch geologist, biologist and explorer. He became an authority on the geology of South Africa and the Dutch East Indies. Gustaaf Molengraaff studied mathematics ...

*1937 Waldemar Lindgren *1938 Maurice Lugeon *1939 Frank Dawson Adams *1940 Henry Woods *1941

Arthur Louis Day Arthur Louis Day (October 30, 1869 – March 2, 1960) was an American geophysicist and volcanologist. He studied high temperature thermometry, seismology and geothermal energy. Early life Day was born in Brookfield, Massachusetts and re ...

*1942 Reginald Aldworth Daly *1943 Alexander Fersman *1944

Victor Goldschmidt Victor Moritz Goldschmidt (27 January 1888 in Zürich – 20 March 1947 in Oslo) was a Norwegian mineralogist considered (together with Vladimir Vernadsky) to be the founder of modern geochemistry and crystal chemistry, developer of the Goldsc ...

*1945

Owen Thomas Jones Owen Thomas Jones, FRS FGS (16 April 1878 – 5 May 1967) was a Welsh geologist. Education He was born in Beulah, near Newcastle Emlyn, Cardiganshire, the only son of David Jones and Margaret Thomas. He attended the local village school in Trewen ...

*1946 Emmanuel de Margerie *1947 Joseph Tyrrell *1948 Edward Battersby Bailey *1949 Robert Broom *1950

Norman L. Bowen Norman Levi Bowen FRS (June 21, 1887 – September 11, 1956) was a Canadian geologist. Bowen "revolutionized experimental petrology and our understanding of mineral crystallization". Beginning geology students are familiar with Bowen's reaction s ...

1951–2000

*1951 Olaf Holtedahl *1952 Herbert Harold Read *1953 Erik Stensiö *1954 Leonard Johnston Wills *1955

Arthur Elijah Trueman Sir Arthur Elijah Trueman (26 April 1894 – 5 January 1956) was a British geologist. Life Trueman was born in Nottingham, the son of Elijah Trueman, a lacemaker, and his wife Thirza Newton Cottee. He was educated at High Pavement School in No ...

*1956 Arthur Holmes *1957

Paul Fourmarier Paul Frédéric Joseph Fourmarier (25 December 1877 – 20 January 1970) was a Belgian geologist and specialist in tectonics, after whom Fourmarierite is named. Fourmarier was born in La Hulpe, Province of Brabant, Belgium and studied at the Unive ...

*1958 Pentti Eskola *1959 Pierre Pruvost *1960 Cecil Edgar Tilley *1961

Roman Kozłowski Roman Stanisław Jakub Kozłowski (1 February 1889 – 2 May 1977) was a Polish palaeontologist, best known for his work on graptolites. Kozłowski was born in Włocławek, north-west of Warsaw, on 1 February 1889. He studied at universities in Sw ...

*1962 Leonard Hawkes *1963 Felix Andries Vening Meinesz *1964

Harold Jeffreys Sir Harold Jeffreys, FRS (22 April 1891 – 18 March 1989) was a British mathematician, statistician, geophysicist, and astronomer. His book, ''Theory of Probability'', which was first published in 1939, played an important role in the reviva ...

*1965 D. M. S. Watson *1966

Francis Parker Shepard Francis Parker Shepard (10 May 1897 – 25 April 1985) was an American sedimentologist most associated with his studies of submarine canyons and seafloor currents around continental shelves and slopes. Early life and education Shepard wa ...

*1967

Edward Crisp Bullard Sir Edward Crisp Bullard FRS (21 September 1907 – 3 April 1980) was a British geophysicist who is considered, along with Maurice Ewing, to have founded the discipline of marine geophysics. He developed the theory of the geodynamo, pioneer ...

*1968 Raymond Cecil Moore *1969 William Maurice Ewing *1970 Philip Henry Kuenen *1971 Ralph Alger Bagnold *1972 Hans Ramberg *1973

Alfred Sherwood Romer Alfred Sherwood Romer (December 28, 1894 – November 5, 1973) was an American paleontologist and biologist and a specialist in vertebrate evolution. Biography Alfred Romer was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Harry Houston Romer an ...

*1974

Francis J. Pettijohn Francis John Pettijohn (June 20, 1904 – April 23, 1999) was an American geologist who served for many years on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University.Paul E. Potter, tp://rock.geosociety.org/pub/Memorials/v31/pettijohn.pdf Memorial to Francis J. ...

*1975

Hollis Dow Hedberg Hollis Dow Hedberg (May 29, 1903 – August 14, 1988; nickname: "El Doctor Hedberg") was an American geologist specializing in petroleum exploration. His contribution to stratigraphic classification of rocks and procedures is a monumental work whi ...

*1976 Kingsley Charles Dunham *1977 Reinout Willem van Bemmelen *1978 John Tuzo Wilson *1979 Hatton Schuyler Yoder *1980

Augusto Gansser Augusto Gansser-Biaggi (28 October 1910 – 9 January 2012) was a Swiss geologist who specialised in the geology of the Himalayas. He was born in Milan. Career His geological researches were global in scope: * East Greenland (1934), a 4-month exp ...

*1981 Robert Minard Garrels *1982

Peter John Wyllie Peter John Wyllie (born 8 February 1930, in London, England) is a British petrologist and academic. He was Professor of Geology at the California Institute of Technology from 1983 until his retirement in 1999. Prior to this, he held positions at ...

*1983 Dan Peter McKenzie *1984

Kenneth J. Hsu Kenneth Jinghwa Hsu () Ph.D, M.A., born 28 June 1929, is a Chinese scientist, geologist, paleoclimatologist, oceanographer, government advisor, author, inventor and entrepreneur who was born in Nanjing, China. Biography Education Hsu (Prof. ...

*1985

Gerald Joseph Wasserburg Gerald J. Wasserburg (March 25, 1927 – June 13, 2016) was an American geologist. At the time of his death, he was the John D. MacArthur Professor of Geology and Geophysics, Emeritus, at the California Institute of Technology. He was known f ...

*1986 John G. Ramsay *1987

Claude Jean Allègre Claude may refer to: __NOTOC__ People and fictional characters * Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Claude (surname), a list of people * Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...

*1988 Alfred Ringwood *1989

Drummond Hoyle Matthews Drummond Hoyle Matthews FRS (5 February 1931 – 20 July 1997), known as "Drum", was a British marine geologist and geophysicist and a key contributor to the theory of plate tectonics. His work, along with that of fellow Briton Fred Vine an ...

*1990 Wallace S. Broecker *1991 Xavier Le Pichon *1992 Martin Harold Phillips Bott *1993 Samuel Epstein *1994

William Jason Morgan William Jason Morgan (born October 10, 1935) is an American geophysicist who has made seminal contributions to the theory of plate tectonics and geodynamics. He retired as the Knox Taylor Professor emeritus of geology and professor of geoscienc ...

*1995 George P. L. Walker *1996 Nicholas John Shackleton *1997 Douglas James Shearman *1998 Karl Karekin Turekian *1999 John Frederick Dewey *2000 William Sefton Fyfe

2001–

*2001

Harry Blackmore Whittington Harry Blackmore Whittington FRS (24 March 1916 – 20 June 2010) was a British palaeontologist who made a major contribution to the study of fossils of the Burgess Shale and other Cambrian fauna. His works are largely responsible for the con ...

*2002 Rudolf Trümpy *2003

Ikuo Kushiro Ikuo (written: 郁夫, 育夫, 征夫 or 幾雄) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, member of Aum Shinrikyo *, Japanese painter *, Japanese politician *, Japanese politician *, Japanese footballer and mana ...

*2004 Geoffrey Eglinton *2005 Ted Irving *2006 James Lovelock *2007 Andrew Knoll *2008

Norman Sleep Norman H. Sleep (born 14 February 1945) is an American geophysicist and professor of geophysics at Stanford University. He has done internationally recognized research on plate tectonics and many other areas of geology and planetology. Educatio ...

*2009 Paul F. Hoffman *2010

Richard H. Sibson Richard Hugh Sibson (born 1945) is a New Zealand structural geologist and emeritus professor at the University of Otago, who has received numerous honors and awards for his work in the field of earthquake research. He has caused a 'fundamental s ...

*2011 Robert Stephen John Sparks *2012 Christopher Hawkesworth *2013 Kurt Lambeck *2014 Maureen Raymo - first woman to receive the Wollaston Medal *2015 James A. Jackson *2016

Susan L. Brantley Susan L. Brantley (born 1958) is an American geologist and geochemist who is the Dr. Hubert Barnes and Dr. Mary Barnes Professor at Pennsylvania State University. Her research dominantly studies interactions between fluids and minerals at low tem ...

*2017 Richard Alley *2018 Terry Plank *2019 Edward Stolper *2020

Barbara Romanowicz Barbara A. Romanowicz (born 5 April 1950) is a French geophysicist and an expert on imaging the Earth's interior. Early life Romanowicz was born in Suresnes, France. Barbara Romanowicz is the daughter of Kazimierz Romanowicz and Zofia Rom ...

*2021

David D. Pollard David D. Pollard (born October 12, 1943) is a professor in geomechanics and structural geology at Stanford University. Career David Pollard teaches an undergraduate course, Fundamentals of Structural Geology, and is writing an undergraduate tex ...

*2022 Tanya Atwater

References

External links

List of Wollaston Medal Winners
{{Geological Society of London Geology awards Palladium Awards established in 1831 Geological Society of London British science and technology awards