The Rutherford Medal (instituted in 1991 and known as the New Zealand Science and Technology Gold Medal until 2000) is the most prestigious award offered by the

Royal Society of New Zealand Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a cit ...

, consisting of a medal and prize of $100,000. It is awarded at the request of the New Zealand Government to recognize exceptional contributions to the advancement and promotion of public awareness, knowledge and understanding in addition to eminent research or technological practice by a person or group in any field of science, mathematics, social science, or technology. It is funded by the New Zealand government and awarded annually. The medal is named after

Ernest Rutherford Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand physicist who came to be known as the father of nuclear physics. ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' considers him to be the greatest ...

, the New Zealand experimental physicist and Nobel Laureate, who pioneered the orbital theory of the atom.

Recipients

Source
Royal Society of New Zealand
;New Zealand Science and Technology Gold Medal *1991: Vaughan Jones, mathematician, Fields medalist *1992:

Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, abbreviated DSIR was the name of several British Empire organisations founded after the 1923 Imperial Conference to foster intra-Empire trade and development. * Department of Scientific and Industria ...

Group Award *1993:

Roy Kerr Roy Patrick Kerr (; born 16 May 1934) is a New Zealand mathematician who discovered the Kerr metric, Kerr geometry, an exact solutions in general relativity, exact solution to the Einstein field equation of general relativity. His solution mo ...

, mathematician *1994:

Ian Axford Sir William Ian Axford (2 January 1933 – 13 March 2010) was a New Zealand space scientist who was director of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy from 1974 to 1990. Axford's research was focused on the interaction of the sun with the ...

, physicist *1995: Bill Denny, oncologist, and

Auckland Cancer Research Laboratory Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about It ...

*1996: ''No award'' *1997:

Thomas William Walker Thomas William Walker, ONZM (2 July 1916 – 8 November 2010) was an Anglo-New Zealand soil scientist. He was known as "Tom" or "John" or "Johnnie" after the Johnnie Walker brand of whisky, or "The Prof" to students and latterly viewers of ''Magg ...

, soil scientist *1998:

Bill Robinson Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles (born Luther Robinson; May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949), was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the f ...

, seismologist *1999: David Vere-Jones, statistician ;Rutherford Medal *2000:

Alan MacDiarmid Alan Graham MacDiarmid, ONZ FRS (14 April 1927 – 7 February 2007) was a New Zealand-born American chemist, and one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000. Early life and education MacDiarmid was born in Masterton, New Z ...

, chemist, Nobel Prize winner *2001:

Peter Gluckman Sir Peter David Gluckman (born 8 February 1949) is a New Zealand scientist. Originally trained as a paediatrician, he served as the inaugural Chief Science Advisor to the New Zealand Prime Minister from 2009 to 2018. He is a founding member a ...

, biologist *2002: Jeff Tallon, physicist *2003:

George Petersen Wilfred George Petersen (13 May 1921 – 28 March 2000) was an Australian politician, affiliated with the Labor Party and elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. Early life and background Petersen was born in Childer ...

, biochemist *2004:

David Penny Edward David Penny CNZM FRSNZ (born 1939 in Taumarunui) is a theoretical and evolutionary biologist from New Zealand. He has researched the nature of evolutionary transformations, and is widely published in the fields of phylogenetic tree, g ...

, theoretical biologist *2005:

Paul Callaghan Sir Paul Terence Callaghan ( ; 19 August 1947 – 24 March 2012) was a New Zealand physicist who, as the founding director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at Victoria University of Wellington, held t ...

, physicist *2006:

Ted Baker Ted Baker is a British high-street clothing retail company known for suits, shirts, and dresses. It was founded in 1988 in Glasgow, Scotland. The company is owned by Authentic Brands Group, after its £211 million acquisition in October 2022. T ...

, structural biologist *2007:

Richard Faull Sir Richard Lewis Maxwell Faull (born 21 October 1945) is a New Zealand neuroscientist and academic who specialises in human neurodegenerative diseases. He is a professor of anatomy and director of the Centre for Brain Research at the Universi ...

, neuroscientist *2008: David Parry, structural biophysicist *2009: Peter Hunter, computational bioengineer *2010: Warren Tate, biochemist *2011: Christine Winterbourn, biochemist *2012:

Margaret Brimble Dame Margaret Anne Brimble (née MacMillan, born 20 August 1961) is a New Zealand chemist. Her research has included investigations of shellfish toxins and means to treat brain injuries. Early life, family, and education Brimble was born in A ...

, chemist *2013:

Anne Salmond Dame Mary Anne Salmond (née Thorpe; born 16 November 1945) is a New Zealand anthropologist, environmentalist and writer. She was New Zealander of the Year in 2013. In 2020, she was appointed to the Order of New Zealand, the highest honour ...

, social scientist *2014: Peter Schwerdtfeger, theoretical chemist and physicist *2015:

Ian Reid Ian Reid may refer to: * Ian Reid (skateboarder) (born 1977) * Ian Reid (Alberta politician) (born 1931), former member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta * Ian Reid (Scottish clergyman), leader of the Iona Community 1967–1974 * Ian Reid ...

, osteologist *2016:

Michael Corballis Michael Charles Corballis (10 September 1936 – 13 November 2021) was a New Zealand and Canadian psychologist and author. He was Emeritus Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Auckland. His fields of research were cogn ...

, psychologist *2017:

Colin Wilson Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English writer, philosopher and novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his phil ...

, volcanologist *2018:

Rod Downey Rodney Graham Downey (born 20 September 1957) is a New Zealand and Australian mathematician and computer scientist,. a professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.Jane Harding Dame Jane Elizabeth Harding (born 1955) is a New Zealand academic new-born intensive case specialist (neonatologist). She was awarded the Rutherford Medal in 2019. Education and career Harding studied at the University of Auckland, graduati ...

, neonatologist *2020:

Brian Boyd Brian David Boyd (born 30 July 1952) is a professor of literature known primarily as an expert on the life and works of author Vladimir Nabokov and on Literary Darwinism, literature and evolution. He is a University Distinguished Professor in ...

, professor of literature *2021:

Philippa Howden-Chapman Philippa Lynne Howden-Chapman is a professor of public health at the University of Otago, Wellington, and the director of the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities. Education Howden-Chapman studied at the University of Auckland and was a ...

, healthy housing researcher and her team *2022: The Dunedin Study, led by

Richie Poulton Richie Graham Poulton (born October 1962) is a New Zealand psychologist and the director of the University of Otago's Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Research Unit, which runs the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development S ...

, with team members Murray Thomson,

Terrie Moffitt Terrie Edith Moffitt (born March 9, 1955) is an American clinical psychologist who is best known for her pioneering research on the development of antisocial behavior and for her collaboration with colleague and partner Avshalom Caspi in researc ...

and

Avshalom Caspi Avshalom Caspi (born May 5, 1960) is an Israeli-American psychologist and the Edward M. Arnett Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University, as well as Professor of Personality Developm ...

References

External links

Rutherford Medal
Royal Society of New Zealand

Rutherford.org.nz by John Campbell {{Lists of New Zealanders Science and technology in New Zealand New Zealand science and technology awards Awards established in 1991 1991 establishments in New Zealand Royal Society of New Zealand

Recipients

See also

References

External links