Image courtesy of Dr John Hemming.
Congratulations to the Society’s former Director, Dr John Hemming, who has been awarded the President’s Medal by the British Academy in recognition of his work in the field of colonial history and ethnography of Brazil and Peru, and the promotion of the protection of endangered societies.
The British Academy’s President’s Medal rewards outstanding service to the humanities and social sciences. Other recipients this year are journalist Zeinab Badawi, Dame Frances Cairncross, William Dalrymple, and Professor Andreas Gestrich.
Dr Hemming was Director of the Society between 1975 and 1996, and led a series of field research projects for the Society, including the Maracá Rainforest Project in Brazil which, with 200 scientists and scientific technicians, became the largest research project in Amazonia organised by a European country.