The James Cook Medal
The James Cook Medal is awarded periodically by the Royal Society of New South Wales for outstanding contributions to science and human welfare in and for the Southern Hemisphere.
Nominations for the 2018 award will close on 30 September 2018. A letter of nomination and the nominee's full curriculum vitae should be sent to the Awards Committee at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The medal will be presented at the Society's Annual Dinner.
The James Cook Medal was established in 1947 with funding by Henry Ferdinand Halloran. Halloran, who joined the Society in 1892 as a 23-year-old, was a surveyor, engineer and town planner. He did not publish in the Society's Journal but he was a very enthusiastic supporter of research. Henry Halloran funded what were to become the Society's two most prestigious awards, the James Cook Medal and the Edgeworth David Medal, the latter being an award for promising young scientists.
James Cook Medal 2017
The Medal for 2017 will be awarded to Scientia Professor Gordon Parker AO FRANZCP FASSA. He is Professor of Medicine at the University of New South Wales.
Professor Parker’s research has been focused on psychiatry, specialising in clinical research in mental health, in particular depression and bipolar disorder. He was founding Director of the internationally recognised Black Dog Institute, dedicated to understanding, preventing and treating mental illness. Thus, his contributions have had a major and lasting impact on human welfare in Australia, the Southern Hemisphere and beyond.
| Year | Recipient |
| 1947 | The Rt. Hon. J.C. Smuts |
| 1948 | B.A. Houssay |
| 1950 | Sir Neil H. Fairley |
| 1951 | Sir Norman McAlister Gregg |
| 1952 | W.L. Waterhouse |
| 1953 | Sir David Rivett |
| 1954 | Sir Frank M. Burnet |
| 1955 | A.P. Elkin |
| 1956 | Sir Ian Clunies Ross |
| 1959 | Albert Schweitzer |
| 1961 | Sir John Eccles |
| 1964 | M.R. Lemberg |
| 1965 | John Gunther |
| 1966 | Sir William Hudson |
| 1969 | Lord Casey of Berwick |
| 1974 | Sir Marcus L. Oliphant |
| 1975 | A. Walsh |
| 1977 | I.A. Watson |
| 1978 | Sir Lawrence J. Wackett |
| 1979 | Robert J. Walsh |
| 1984 | Ronald Lawrie Huckstep |
| 1985 | Donald Metcalf |
| 1987 | Phillip Garth Law |
| 1991 | Graeme Milbourne Clark |
| 1994 | Sir Gustav Nossal |
| 2013 | Brien Holden |
| 2014 | Martin Green |
| 2016 | David Cooper |
| 2017 | Gordon Parker |
