science

List of recipients of the Founder's Medal

List of recipients of the Founder's Medal is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of recipients of the Founder's Medal rather than just read about it. In short: The Founder's Medal is a medal awarded annually by the Royal Geographical Society, upon approval of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, to individuals for "the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery". Foundation From its foundation, the society received an annual grant from the Sovereign of the United Kingdom for awards with royal approval.

Key takeaways

List of recipients of the Founder's Medal belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of recipients of the Founder's Medal to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of recipients of the Founder's Medal from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Founder's Medal is a medal awarded annually by the Royal Geographical Society, upon approval of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, to individuals for "the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery".

Foundation From its foundation, the society received an annual grant from the Sovereign of the United Kingdom for awards with royal approval. The medal originated from an annual donation starting in 1831 of 50 guineas from King William IV. The award was instituted as the Royal Premium or Royal Award, an annual cash prize. In 1836, the society with agreement from King William IV, decided to allocate half of the premium to a 'Gold Medal'. This would be awarded by the Sovereign, on the advice of the Council of the Royal Geographical Society. Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne before the first gold medal, which was designed in coordination with King William IV, was awarded. Queen Victoria announced her intention of continuing the grant commenced by her uncle. The council ultimately decided to divide the grant into two gold medals of equal standing; the Founder's Medal in memory of the founding patron King William IV and the Patron's Medal with the image of Queen Victoria as the active royal patron of the society.

Design The medal, like the Patron's Medal, is a gold medallion designed by William Wyon, Chief Engraver of the Royal Mint. The obverse side has a portrait of William IV. The reverse side shows a figure of Britannia, wearing a helmet and standing by a sextant and globe. She is holding a wreath in her outstretched right hand and a map in the left. The name of the recipient is engraved on the edge of the medal. The medal was struck in gold until 1974. From 1975 onwards it has been struck in silver-gilt. Exceptionally, on account of wars, the medals of 1918−21 and 1940 were struck in bronze.

Award history While generally awarded annually, the Founder's Medal was not awarded in the years 1850, 1851, 1855, 1913, 1943 and 1944. In 1850, the Patron's Medal was awarded but instead of awarding a Founder's Medal the council presented David Livingstone with a chronometer watch for 'his journey to the great lake of Ngami'. In 1851, the council awarded no gold medals and instead awarded 25 guinea prizes to each of Georg August Wallin and Thomas Brunner. In 1855, the Patron's Medal was awarded but instead of awarding a Founder's Medal the council presented Charles John Andersson with a set of surveying instruments (containing a sextant and stand, artificial horizon, watch, thermometers and measuring tapes). Awarding a prize funded by the annual royal grant that was not a medal recognized the valuable work of the recipient while concurrently indicating "the service had not been of sufficient importance to justify the award of a gold medal, the highest award at the disposal of the society." In 1913, the Patron's Medal was awarded but instead of awarding a Founder's Medal the council presented an engraved casket to Kathleen Scott containing the Patron's Medal and the Special Antarctic Medal awarded to her late husband Robert Falcon Scott. No awards were made in 1943 or 1944 on account of the Second World War.

List of recipients

In 2025, media said that Børge Ousland will be getting the prize for 2025.

References

External links

Boyd Alexander Founder's Medal James Hector Founder's Medal

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of recipients of the Founder's Medal

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of recipients of the Founder's Medal claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of recipients of the Founder's Medal before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of recipients of the Founder's Medal ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of recipients of the Founder's Medal

In research: List of recipients of the Founder's Medal appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of recipients of the Founder's Medal in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of recipients of the Founder's Medal is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1831 establishments in the United Kingdom, Awards of Royal Geographical Society, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of recipients of the Founder's Medal outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study List of recipients of the Founder's Medal in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
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Frequently asked questions

What is List of recipients of the Founder's Medal in simple terms?

Why does List of recipients of the Founder's Medal matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of recipients of the Founder's Medal?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of recipients of the Founder's Medal.