The RST Honours and Awards Committee recently assessed nominations for the 2023 Doctoral (PhD) Award. This award is intended to recognise recent PhD graduates who have made significant advances in the course of their doctoral research. The value of the award is $1,000 (AUD).

Dr Tobias Stål was selected as the winner of the 2023 RST Doctoral Award. Dr Stål is a geophysicist focusing on understanding Antarctica’s deep and shallow structure and properties. He completed his PhD at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, in 2021. The focus of his PhD research was a study of the Antarctic lithosphere revealed by multivariate analysis.

The Antarctic continent, with an area of about 14 million km², is larger than Australia; yet due to the ice cover and inaccessibility, its geology and lithospheric structure are to a large extent unknown. Advancing our understanding of the Antarctic continent addresses fundamental knowledge gaps in plate tectonics and understanding the interactions between the solid Earth and the cryosphere.

Dr Stål’s PhD research addressed challenging topics such as the identification of sub-ice lithospheric boundaries, and the determination of a new geothermal heat flow model for the continent of Antarctica. The research was enabled by innovations in computational and statistical methodologies, including the development of a new software library to enable the multivariate approaches that were ground-breaking for Antarctica.

Since graduating, Dr Stål has taken up a Research Associate position in computation physics at the School of Natural Sciences, funded by the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence in Antarctic Science. He is currently in East Antarctica conducting remote fieldwork until February 2024 as part of his research.

The RST Council recently awarded the two medals on offer this year, namely the MR Banks Medal and the RM Johnston Memorial Medal.

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MR Banks Medal

The MR Banks Medal was established in 1997 and is intended for a scholar of distinction in mid-career in any field within the Society’s purview. This year the recipient of the MR Banks Medal is Associate Professor Alex Bissember (University of Tasmania) for his outstanding contribution to the field of chemical synthesis and catalysis.

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RM Johnston Memorial Medal

The RM Johnston Medal was established in 1920 for a scholar of great distinction in any field. This year for the first time in the history of the RM Johnston Memorial Medal, two medals have been awarded. The RST Honours Committee decided that it was inappropriate to attempt to separate two outstanding nominations. The RM Johnston Memorial medals for 2023 are awarded to Distinguished Emeritus Professor Paul R Haddad (University of Tasmania) and Emeritus Professor John A Church (University of NSW).

Professor Haddad has made truly outstanding and internationally recognised contributions to the field of analytical chemistry.

Professor Church is internationally known for his work on sea level and climate, and has significantly advanced the field of climate science, including ocean observing systems, and theoretical understanding of physical oceanic processes.

At the recent Government House reception, held in honour of Louisa Anne Meredith on 28th September 2023, the Royal Society of Tasmania established the Louisa Anne Meredith Medal to be awarded every four years to a person who excels in any area within the arts or humanities or both.

The Medal honours Louisa Anne Meredith’s contributions to the areas of natural history art, scientific art, literature and history and is to commemorate the exceptional whole-of-career contributions by a person in any area within the arts or humanities or both.

Louisa Anne Meredith (née Twamley) was a remarkable woman; a prolific artist, writer and social commentator. She was the first woman to be granted Honorary membership of The Royal Society of Tasmania in 1881. The RST has a large number of her sketches and watercolours in its Art Collection, as well as a number of her books in its Library.

Louisa came to Tasmania with her husband, Charles, in 1840. She was already a published illustrator and author in England, moving in a circle of famous artists, poets and writers. She was an educated, intelligent and independent woman, a skilled artist and writer.

She proved to be a prolific artist and author while in Van Diemen’s Land. She published over a dozen books during her life, many of them lavishly illustrated by her. In her books, she was considered most successful as a ‘shrewd and cultivated’ observer of colonial life. Her descriptions, particularly those of domestic conditions and of the natural environment, were praised by many contemporaries as among the most reliable and practical, and remain a valuable source for social historians.

In 1890, Louisa travelled to England to see her original watercolours for Some of My Bush Friends vol 2 – now part of the RST Art Collection – made into lithographs.

She wrote, ‘For a woman of nearly eighty years of age to make the voyage from Tasmania to London, bringing a book to publish, was doubtless an exploit of less wisdom than valour; but my purpose is achieved, and I now hope to return and end my days among my children, in the pleasant colony to whose service my best efforts have been so long devoted.’

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Although Meredith’s books were aimed at a general market, her illustrations of the Tasmanian fauna and flora were always well researched and scientifically accurately drawn. During the nineteenth century, the study of Australian natural history acknowledged the work of the professional male scientists, but the contribution of women like Louisa Anne Meredith to the growth of this science in the colonies was often not recognised. However, her work was certainly highly regarded by the leading scientists of the time. Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, Director of Kew Gardens, checked the proofs of the book to ensure that they were botanically correct; and Professor John Westwood, entomologist, checked the insects.

Meredith sent seaweed specimens to Jacob Agardh at Lund University in Sweden, who named several seaweeds for her, Bornetia meredithiana, Curdiae meredithiae, and in 1892 Agardh honoured her with a new genus, Meredith.

She also corresponded with Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, often called the greatest Australian botanist of the nineteenth century, who named Ewartia meredithae for her. In the past, John Gould had allowed her to copy illustrations from his books for her children’s books.

Meredith’s wildflower drawings won medals in exhibitions in Australia and overseas, notably in the Melbourne Exhibition of 1866.

Meredith contributed a great deal to the work of The Royal Society of Tasmania. Over several decades, she sent interesting specimens to the Royal Society Museum and presented beautiful and accurate watercolours of many specimens to the RST. These artworks were much admired at Royal Society meetings as being ‘beautifully executed’. The Royal Society of Tasmania also purchased a number of her illustrations.

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Conditions and nomination guidelines for the Louisa Anne Meredith Medal provided here

The Southern Ocean is a critical component of the global climate system. The Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) coordinates the delivery of Southern Ocean data internationally and promotes sustained observing systems and syntheses of existing Southern Ocean datasets. The International Project Office is hosted by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) at the University of Tasmania.

The Southern Ocean Observing System Symposium “Southern Ocean in a Changing World” was held in Hobart 14–18 August. Among the international delegates was a significant cohort of early career researchers from which future leaders in the field will emerge.

The RST offered a $250 cash prize for the best paper presented at the conference by an early career researcher. The SOOS Organising Committee chose the paper by Pauline Latour “Living on the edge: Response of deep phytoplankton communities to light, iron and manganese additions”.

The papers by Safiyyah Moos – “Investigating the dynamics and exchanges across the ice-ocean interface in artificial sea ice”; and Ethan Campbell – “Antarctic sea ice formation and melt rates estimated from under-ice Argo observations” were highly commended.

RST member and Southern Ocean researcher Dr Ed Doddridge presented the RST awards at the closing ceremony of the symposium on 18 August. All three winners also received copies of the RST publication Poles Apart: Fascination, Fame and Folly.

Sunday 5 November, 5pm – 7pm, 96 King Street, Sandy Bay.

The Royal Society of Tasmania warmly invites you and your friends to attend a social event and silent auction featuring an attractive selection of art, objets d’art and collectables. Vice-President Julie Rimes is very kindly hosting this event at her lovely home built in 1905 by noted Tasmanian architect Orlando Baker.

While enjoying the various rooms you will have the opportunity to place bids on auction items, with something to suit every budget. These would make wonderful additions to your own collection or appealing gifts for friends and family. All auction items have been donated by generous members of the RST. The auction catalogue can be viewed using this link.

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The ticket price of $25 per person includes wine and canapés. There will be lucky door prizes too. All funds raised will be used for the conservation and restoration of The Royal Society of Tasmania Art Collection.

Please feel free to invite your friends and interested people to join you at this event. Numbers are limited, so early booking is advised.

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Book your tickets using this link. We hope to see you there!

If you are unable to attend but wish to bid on an item, absentee bids can be emailed to admin@rst.org.au by 11 a.m. on Thursday 2 November,

or you may call or text 0419 594 206 after 4.30pm on 5 November to place your bid. Early bids are welcome.

Thursday 7 December, 5.30 pm for 6 pm, Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay.

Members and guests are invited to join us for the annual Christmas Dinner ($70 per person) and Lecture. Please fill in and return the acceptance form to admin@rst.org.au before 15 November. Download the acceptance form using this link.

The lecture to be given by Dr Annaliese Jacobs-Claydon is entitled:

“Shearwater Stories: Histories of Tasmania and the Arctic, c.1800-1860”

Sometime between 1850 and 1860, a Chukchi umialik (a whaling captain), drew a map of the Bering Strait on sealskin. The map was a rich depiction of an animate and changing world, and it included several whaling ships gathered to hunt Aġviq, the bowhead whale. Like the short-tailed shearwater, one of them might have made the long journey from Tasmania.

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We are used to thinking of Hobart as an Antarctic gateway, but this talk will turn things around, and examine some of Tasmania’s Arctic histories. How did islanders impact the Arctic regions, and how have this island’s histories have been shaped by Arctic environments, animals, and people?

Following the tracks of migrating animals and the people who pursued them in (roughly) the first half of the nineteenth century, we will look at how Tasmanians were entangled in the shifting politics of dynamic Arctic worlds, and how those threads were woven in turn into the fabric of Tasmanian history. We will also stop with Tasmanians in the places they called home and look at how they used Arctic stories to make sense of their pasts and imagine their futures. Indigenous people and Indigenous networks of trade and information are central to these stories, connecting the Bering and Bass Straits in surprising and important ways. These polar perspectives might help us reckon with the living legacies of Tasmania’s colonial history, a history that includes the changing polar regions that many will never see.

Annaliese Jacobs-Claydon was born and brought up on Dena’ina land in Southcentral Alaska. She began her career as a historian and archaeologist with the U.S. National Park Service in two Indigenous-owned Affiliated Areas, the Iñupiat Heritage Center (Utqiagvik) and the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area (Unalaska/Dutch Harbor). She earned her PhD in British and Imperial History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2015, after which she worked for the State Library and Archives Service at Libraries Tasmania as an Archivist until 2022.

She is now an Adjunct Researcher in the Department of History and Classics at the University of Tasmania. Her first book, Arctic Circles and Imperial Knowledge: The Franklin Family, Indigenous Intermediaries, and the Politics of Truth will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in early 2024.