July 13, 2026
Society Fellow and expert on international refugee law, Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO FRSN FASSA of the UNSW Sydney Faculty of Law and Justice, has been recently awarded the Gerda Henkel Prize — one of the world’s most prestigious international awards in the humanities and social sciences, presented by the Gerda Henkel Foundation in Germany.
The Gerda Henkel Prize is a biennial €100,000 award for a scholar whose work has made an outstanding, field‑defining contribution to the humanities—especially history, archaeology, law, and related disciplines. Professor McAdam has received the 2026 prize for her groundbreaking work on climate‑related displacement and international refugee law, with the jury praising her for reconstructing the historical record of disaster‑related displacement and exposing gaps in current legal frameworks.
The jury’s citation states that “Australian legal scholar Jane McAdam is a leading expert worldwide on the rights of refugees. She was one of the first to draw attention to the challenge that forced migration linked to the impacts of climate change creates for international law. In her pioneering research work, she has historically reconstructed the history of disaster-related displacement and relocation, analysed how these were addressed in legal terms, and exposed systematic gaps in current law. Her work stands out for the differentiated approach she takes, which places global warming in the context of the variety of factors behind displacement. Her books have become standard works and have established displacement in the context of climate change and disaster as a new field of research in international law. As an advisor to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and to countless national and international boards, she brings her scholarly insights to bear directly in political and legal practice. She has enduringly changed our understanding of one of the most urgent challenges of the 21st century and contributed incisively to advancing international legal protection for refugees and human rights.”
Professor McAdam is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and the Royal Society of NSW, which she joined in 2025. In 2021, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) ‘for distinguished service to international refugee law, particularly to climate change and the displacement of people.’ She won the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Law Award in 2022 and was the inaugural winner of the RSNSW Award in the Humanities, Philosophy, and Law in 2024. In May 2025, she addressed the Society on her research in a talk titled ‘Rethinking Mobility in a Changing Climate‘ at the 1331st Ordinary General Meeting and Open Lecture, a recording of which is available on YouTube.
The Council of the Royal Society of NSW warmly congratulates Professor McAdam on this further pinnacle of achievement in her outstanding career.
