Society of Woman Geographers

Gold Medal

• 2017, Constanza Ceruti, Argentina, High-altitude archaeologist who recovered three preserved Incan mummies from the Andes mountains.
• 2014, Rebecca Lee Lok-Sze, Hong Kong, Explorer of three Polar Regions-the Arctic, Antarctica, and Mount Everest and the study of climate change and sea level rise.
• 2011, Susan D. Shaw, American marine toxicologist, who documents harmful impacts of chemicals on the marine environment.
• 2008, Laurie Marker, American conservation biologist, whose non-profit Cheetah Conservation Fund and its International Research and Education Centre in Namibia address threats to the cheetah species, including lack of genetic variation and habitat loss.
• 2005, Tanya Marie Atwater, American geophysicist and marine geologist who studies plate tectonics.
• 1999, Anna Curtenius Roosevelt, American archaeologist, who discovered an unknown prehistoric culture at Painted Rock Cave in the Amazon Basin, challenging theories of human settlement.
• 1996, Pam Flowers, the first person to trek 2,500 miles across the North American Arctic, the longest solo dog sled trek by a woman.
• 1996, Natalie Goodall, American-born biologist, for her studies of marine mammals and other species of Tierra del Fuego, South America.
• 1993, Anne LaBastille, American ornithologist and wildlife ecologist, for conservation work in the Adirondacks and Central America.
• 1993, Kathryn Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, during the 1984 Space Shuttle Challenger mission.
• 1990, Sylvia Alice Earle, American marine biologist, for exploration in deep water dives with miniature submarines and submersibles.
• 1990, Jane Goodall, English primatologist and anthropologist, for pioneering field studies of chimpanzees in Tanzania.
• 1987, Freya Stark, Anglo-Italian explorer of the Middle East
• 1984, Arlene Blum, American biophysical chemist and mountaineer who led the first woman's climbs of Denali, Annapurna, and Bhrigupanth in the Indian Himalayas.
• 1975, Eugenie Clark, American ichthyologist who used scuba diving in her study shark reproduction and behavior.
• 1975, Mary Douglas Leakey, British paleoanthropologist who studied ancient hominines and hominins at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.
• 1975, Marion Stirling Pugh, American archaeologist who discovered and studied Olmec colossal heads in Central America.
• 1950, Irene Wright, American historian of 16th century maritime history, who studied connections between England, Spain, the Caribbean and the Americas.
• 1944, Blair Niles, American novelist and travel writer who wrote about Southeast Asia, Central & South America. One of the founders of the Society.
• 1942, Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist who worked among primitive tribes in Samoa, New Guinea, and other South Seas islands.
• 1933, Amelia Earhart, American aviator, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, May 20, 1932.