THE
A.G. HUNTSMAN AWARD
was
established in 1980 by the Canadian marine science community to recognize
excellence of research and outstanding contributions to marine sciences.
It is presented by the Royal Society of Canada. The award honours marine
scientists of any nationality who have had and continue to have a
significant influence on the course of marine scientific thought. The
Award is named in honour of Archibald Gowanlock Huntsman (1883– 1973), a
pioneer Canadian oceanographer and fishery biologist.
The
A.G. Huntsman Award was established through initial principal
contributions from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Natural Resources
Canada, the Province of Nova Scotia, and the Canadian Association of
Petroleum Producers. Additional endowment was later granted
from the LiFT Family Fund through Gift Funds Canada.
The
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia is Honorary Patron of the A.G. Huntsman
Award.
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2025 AWARD
ANNOUNCEMENT
The A.G. Huntsman
Foundation is pleased to announce that the 2025 A.G. Huntsman
Medal will be awarded to Dr. Karen Helen Wiltshire in
recognition of her innovative and interdisciplinary research in
climate science as well as her contributions to international
organizations that has contributed to capacity building and
bringing new voices into the marine sciences.
Karen Helen Wiltshire is an international marine
ecologist and climate scientist, serving as the inaugural CRH
Chair of Climate Science at Trinity College Dublin where she
leads The Climate Gateway, fostering excellence in climate
research, education, and innovation by advancing collaborative,
science-based solutions to global climate challenges. Born in
Dublin, she studied Environmental Science at Trinity before
completing her PhD and Habilitation in Hydrobiology at the
University of Hamburg. Over a four-decade career, she has held
distinguished research and leadership roles across Europe,
including at GKSS Geesthacht, the University of St Andrews, the
University of Groningen, the Max Planck Institute of Limnology,
Jacobs University Bremen, and the University of Kiel. Until
recently, she was Vice-Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute
(AWI) and Director of its Coastal Research. A defining
achievement was rescuing the Helgoland Roads Time Series, a
unique long- term dataset on marine physical and ecosystem
change, which she integrated into global climate databases and
models revealing some of the first warming-related changes at
the base of the North Sea food web. Professor Wiltshire has also
shaped international science policy through contributions to
UNEP, SCOR- UNESCO, IPCC, and IIASA, and as the first female
Chair of POGO. She directed the NIPPON-POGO Centre of Excellence
and co-founded SeaNetwork, an ocean science diplomacy initiative
to coordinate training programmes across institutions and
countries. She and her team are strong advocates for global
capacity building, marine sustainability, and climate
resilience. |
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2025 DISTINGUISHED LECTURE
October 15, 2025, 10:00 am AST
Bedford Institute of Oceanography,
Dartmouth, NS
The lecture will be shared through
Microsoft Teams providing a virtual option for those outside of
the Halifax area.
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2025 AWARD CEREMONY
October 15, 2025, 2:00 pm AST
Government House, Halifax, NS
RSVP and reserve free tickets for the award
ceremony
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The
photograph on the website header shows CSS Hudson in Scott Inlet, Baffin
Island, on September 6, 1977. The cliffs in the background are 300 or more
metres high. In th fall of 1976, Bedford Institute of Oceanography
scientists had observed an oil slick off the Inlet but because of ice
conditions at the time they were unable to locate its source or to
determine its extent. So in 1977 and again in 1978, CSS Hudson returned to
measure the background levels of petroleum residues in the eastern Arctic
and also to investigate the geology of the Baffin Island shelf. Together,
the chemical and geological studies demonstrated that the slick at Scott
Inlet is the result of natural seepage of petroleum from the walls and
bottom of the submarine trough that cuts across the continental shelf in
this area. This image of CSS Hudson appears on the Huntsman Medal.
[Photograph by Roger Belanger, Crown
Copyright] |
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