Awards
Overview
The Royal Society of New South Wales has long recognised distinguished achievements in various fields of knowledge through its Awards. Some are amongst the oldest in Australia while others are more recent. From its Act of Incorporation in 1881, the Society’s mission has been to encourage “studies and investigations in Science, Art, Literature and Philosophy”.
In 2023, the Society determined to broaden and streamline its Awards portfolio to recognise recent and evolving fields and disciplines, and emerging as well as established stars.
From 2023, the Society Awards are made in two main classes reflecting the Society’s history: Career Excellence Medals and Discipline Awards and Medals; with additional Awards, Scholarships, and Citations, including Internal Awards for distinguished service to the Society and community.
External nominations are most welcome for all but the Internal and Discretionary Awards which require both the nominator and seconder to be Members or fellows of the Society. Conditions and nomination forms are listed at each Award’s individual webpage, together with some guidance notes.
Information about historical Awards and their winners prior to 2023 is available from the preceding link.
Nominations for all available Awards open on 1 July each year and close on 30 September
Awardees are announced by the end of that calendar year with formal presentations of their Awards in the following year. All nominations require a nominator and a seconder. All RSNSW awards are assessed relative to opportunity.
Please ensure that you use the current nomination forms, accessible from the particular pages for each award. You must do so to ensure that you are responding to the current award conditions and requirements and not those applicable in earlier years.
Current RSNSW Awards
The new program comprises four categories of awards, with individual awards within each category itemised as follows. Follow the links to information pages and relevant nomination forms for each individual award.
Recent Winners
Each year, the Society makes a number of awards that are among the oldest and most prestigious awards in Australia.
Award Winners 2025
The Awards for 2025 were announced at the 1337th Ordinary General Meeting of the Society, held on Wednesday, 3 December 2025.
Listed below are the winners for 2025. Detailed information about each of the awards and their recipients can be found on the Recent Winners page.
RSNSW Career Excellence Awards
RSNSW James Cook Medal — Professor Michelle Haber AM FAA FAHMS (Children’s Cancer Institute and UNSW Sydney)
RSNSW Edgeworth David Medal — Scientia Professor Xiaojing Hao FTSE FAA (UNSW Sydney)
RSNSW Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Scholar Medal — Professor Bradley Moggridge FTSE (University of Technology Sydney)
RSNSW Ida Browne Early Career Medal—No award in 2025
RSNSW Discipline Awards and Lectureships
RSNSW Liversidge Award and Lectureship in the Chemical Sciences—Professor Chuan Zhao FRSN FTSE (UNSW Sydney)
RSNSW Warren Award in Engineering, Technology, Architecture, and Design—Professor Simon Ringer FRSN FTSE (University of Sydney)
RSNSW Award in the Creative and Performing Arts—Scientia Professor Dennis Del Favero FAHA (UNSW Sydney)
RSNSW Award in the Life Sciences—Professor Richard Kingsford AO FRSN FRZS
RSNSW Scholarships, Early Career, and Student Awards
RSNSW Bicentennial Postgraduate Scholarships
— Ms Eilish McMaster (University of Sydney)
— Ms Isabelle Nicholas (Macquarie University)
— Mr Amir Tourani (Western Sydney University)
— Mr Christopher Whyte (University of Sydney)
RSNSW Bicentennial Early Career Research and Service Citations
— Dr Adrian Y. S. Lee (Westmead Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney)
— Dr Jiayan Liao (University of Technology Sydney)
— Dr Brandon Munn (University of Sydney)
RSNSW Jak Kelly Award
— Mr Yunlong Qiang (University of Sydney)
RSNSW Service Awards
RSNSW Medal—No award in 2025
RSNSW Citation—No award in 2025
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