The RSWA Medal is an award from the Royal Society of Western Australia, established to honour outstanding work and achievement in science relative to Western Australia.
In 1924, the Royal Society of Western Australia decided to commemorate the centenary of the birth (26 June 1824) of William Thomson, Lord Kelvin. The event was marked by the creation of the Gold Medal of the Royal Society. The award was established to honour outstanding work and achievement in science relative to Western Australia.[1][2] Miss Enid Isabel Allum, of 7 Richardson Street West Perth was commissioned to design the medal for £5-5-0 honorarium. Miss Allum was a member of the Royal Society of Western Australia, and had previously been Treasurer and Social Committee member. The Royal Mint at Perth commissioned the firm of Messrs. Stokes & Co, of Melbourne to produce the dye for the medal. In 1924, the inaugural medal was presented to Dr. William John Hancock. The first three medals were struck in gold in 1924, 1929, and 1933, and ever since the medals have been struck in silver. It is also known as the Kelvin Gold Medal.[3]
In 2013, the RSWA Medal was renamed the RSWA Forrest Medal in honour of Sir John Forrest.[4][5][6]
| Year | Name | Ref | Affiliation | Field of Study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1924 | William John Hancock | [7] | Perth Public Hospital | radiography; medical application of x-rays. |
| 1929 | E S Simpson | [8] | mineralogy and geology of WA. | |
| 1933 | W M Carne | [9] | plant pathology; the bitter pill of apples. | |
| 1937 | Andrew Gibb Maitland | [10] | Pilbara survey and artesian water supplies. | |
| 1941 | Edward de Courcy Clarke | [11] | geology of WA. | |
| 1945 | L Glauert | [12] | natural sciences. | |
| 1949 | Charles A. Gardner | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | botany, the flora of WA. | |
| 1955 | Harold William Bennetts | veterinary science; live stock diseases. | ||
| 1959 | E J Underwood | animal nutrition and husbandry. | ||
| 1966 | Clee Francis Howard Jenkins | agricultural entomology and natural history. | ||
| 1970 | R T Prider | geology, petrology and mineralogy. | ||
| 1979 | Ronald Murray Berndt | anthropology; aboriginal studies. | ||
| 1979 | B J Grieve | botany; ecophysiology and the flora of WA. | ||
| 1979 | Dominic Louis Serventy | zoology; ornithology and nature conservation. | ||
| 1983 | John Stanley Beard | botany; vegetation classification and mapping. | ||
| 1986 | C A Parker | soil biology. | ||
| 1995 | Albert Russell Main | zoology; ecology and nature conservation. | ||
| 1997 | Ernest Pease Hodgkin | estuarine studies. | ||
| 1997 | Arthur James McComb | plant growth and ecology. | ||
| 2001 | Phillip E. Playford | geology and history of early Dutch exploration | ||
| 2005 | David Groves | economic geology | ||
| 2005 | Kenneth J McNamara | palaeontology | ||
| 2010 | Sidney Donald Bradshaw | ecophysiology |
