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 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 granted by the LiFT Family Fund through Gift Funds Canada. The Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia is Honorary Patron of the A.G. Huntsman Award. |
2024 A.G. HUNTSMAN AWARD
The A.G. Huntsman Foundation is pleased to announce that the 2024 A.G. Huntsman Medal will be awarded to Dr. William Cheung in recognition of his outstanding achievements in research focused on climate change, biodiversity and ocean sustainability as well as his efforts to connect marine sciences to the social sciences. Dr. Cheung’s work recognizes the interdependence of ocean systems and human systems and that the scale of climate change impacts range from local to global, as do the needs for solutions.
WILLIAM CHEUNG is a Professor, Canada Research Chair in Ocean Sustainability and Global Change, and the Director of the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, at the University of British Columbia. He is the Principal Investigator of the Changing Ocean Research Unit at UBC. He serves as Director for a 6-year partnership with Canada’s Social Science funding agency focused on “Solving the Sustainability Challenges at the Food-Climate-Biodiversity Nexus”. Dr. Cheung is actively involved in international and regional initiatives that bridge science and policy and has served as the Coordinating Lead Author for the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Dr. Cheung obtained his BSc and M.Phil. from the University of Hong Kong. He completed his PhD in Resource Management and Environmental Studies at UBC. From 2009 to 2011, he was Lecturer in Marine Ecosystem Services in the University of East Anglia before returning to UBC.
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DECEMBER 3, 2024
THE A.G. HUNTSMAN DISTINGUISHED LECTURE will be presented by William Cheung at 10:30 am in the Ford Auditorium at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (1 Challenger Drive, Dartmouth, NS). The lecture will be shared through Teams providing a virtual option for those outside of the Halifax area.
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THE A.G. HUNTSMAN MEDAL AWARD CEREMONY will be held at Government House in Halifax, Nova Scotia at 2:00 pm, with a reception to follow. RSVP and reserve your free tickets for the award ceremony here.
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The photograph on the website header shows the CSS Hudson in Scott Inlet, Baffin Island, on September 6, 1977. The cliffs in the background are 300 or more metres high. In the 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.