Professor Susan J Smith, Life Fellow and former Mistress of Girton College, has been awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s prestigious Patron’s Medal.
Receipt of the medal is a rare and, as one of the Royal Geographical Society’s Gold Medals, is the highest honour the society confers. Gold Medals are awarded for exceptional contributions to the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery, with Royal approval.
Speaking of her achievement, Susan was pleased to note the presence of a ‘bit of Girton magic woven into the Medal well before it found its way to me’. The only woman to receive the Patron’s Medal in the first 150 years since its advent was Mary Somerville, who collected the medal in 1869 – the year Girton was founded. A suffragist like Emily Davies, Mary was 88 when she received the award and died without knowing that Girton’s sister College in Oxford, Somerville, would be named after her.
Congratulations to Susan on her incredible achievement!
Read more about this news on the Royal Geographical Society website.