About the Society
Need to know
The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) is the UK’s learned society for geography and professional body for geographers. We are also a membership organisation and a registered charity.
The Society was founded in 1830 to advance geographical science and this remains our core purpose. We achieve this through supporting geographical research, education, and fieldwork and expeditions, as well as by advocating on behalf of the discipline and promoting geography to public audiences.
We value our independence as well as the breadth of our activities that support the understanding of the world’s people, places and environments. Everyone with an enthusiasm for geography, travel and exploration is welcome to join.
A message
From the President
One of the most rewarding elements of my job is the broad range of enthusiastic and committed members I get to meet and work with, not least our Trustees. So if you’re thinking about getting more involved with shaping the direction of our activities, please do think about standing for election to Council.
The Society plays a vital role in supporting geography and geographers whether they are students, teachers, researchers, professionals, expeditioners or simply interested in the world’s people, places and environments. Unlike many similar organisations, our retention rates have remained high over the past few years, but we would like to attract new members. The Membership team are working with external consultants to better understand how to reach and recruit greater numbers of new members. As part of this they have been undertaking surveys and focus groups with our existing members – a big thank you to all of you who have contributed to this important project.
It is my great pleasure to write my first introduction to the Bulletin as President of the Society shortly after attending my first event as President – this year’s medals and awards ceremony. You can read more about our two inspiring Gold Medal recipients on page 44, but, as ever, all of this year’s recipients demonstrated the real value of geography to us all, as well as the amazing breadth of our discipline.
As I settle into my four-year term as President, I will be listening and learning to understand how best I can support the staff team while representing your views. While I look forward to meeting many of you in person, you can also contact me at president@rgs.org at any time if you have anything you’d like to raise with me.
Image credit: Lucy Pope
Society
News
Changes to our displays
In recent months we have been bringing more Collections material into view throughout the building, and adding interpretation. We are also adding elements of contemporary art and photography, as well as digital content that displays the work of geographers and expeditioners today. This includes a new mural by Hormazd Narielwalla inspired by our map collection, which is being installed in the Map Room this August.
Image credit: Luke Varley
Earth Stories
Our Earth Stories initiative is supporting engagement and action on environment and sustainability issues, bringing together leading climate, biodiversity and sustainability specialists with key media industry figures, as well as top creative talent. The aim is to inspire media and cultural participants through seminars and fieldtrips, and to find new ways of telling some of the biggest, and most tricky, stories of the day.
One year since the initiative launched we have hosted four such events. Earth Stories will require patient and sustained work as a multi-year programme and will need further external funding to achieve its potential.
King’s Birthday Honours
Congratulations to Society Fellows Professor Judith Petts, University of Plymouth, on receiving a DBE for services to higher education and to sustainability, and to Professor Harriet Bulkeley, Durham University, who was awarded an OBE for services to geography and to environmental governance, in the King’s Birthday Honours list.
OS partnership renewed
Ordnance Survey have renewed their Corporate Benefactor support for a further three years, demonstrating long-term commitment to advancing geospatial understanding.
Transglobe Expedition Trust
We have recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Transglobe Expedition Trust (TET) to use remaining TET funds to provide grants through the Society’s grants programme for expeditionary projects. These grants will support humanitarian, scientific or educational projects of the kind previously supported by TET. Join us on Wednesday 23 October to launch the ‘Ran and Ginny Fiennes’ grant, and help raise funds for future grants.
Election results
Congratulations to our new President, Professor Dame Jane Francis, and our newest Council and committee members who were elected at our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in June.
Our new Council members are: Alan Parkinson (Vice President, Education), David Wood (Councillor, Professional Practice) and Clare Hadley (Councillor, Membership).
Our new committee members are: Jenny Pickerill (Research and Higher Education Committee) and Patricia Noxolo (Chair of Annual Conference 2025, Research and Higher Education Committee).
Thank you to our outgoing Council and committee members for their hard work and dedication to the Society.
Image credit: RGS-IBG
Education
News
National Education Nature Park
We are pleased to recognise two major project milestones. Firstly, reaching one year since the project launched, and secondly, over 2000 schools, colleges and nurseries have now joined the National Education Nature Park. As a partner, the Society is developing resources to use in the geography classroom, along with a range of materials about green careers.
Register your school now to join the free programme, with resources, support and guidance to embed climate and nature into learning in a way that suits your setting and young people.
Image credit: Department for Education
Competitions for schools
The Young Geographer of the Year and School Essay Competition are both designed to get students thinking beyond the curriculum and engaged with the opportunities geography offers. For trainee and early-career teachers with innovative ideas to engage pupils, the Rex Walford Award celebrates emerging talent in educational resource writing.
Our Young Geographer of the Year competition recognises the outstanding work of the next generation of geographers. This year’s theme is Choose Geography, and students are being asked to create eye-catching and inspiring posters that promote the value of choosing geography at school, as further study or in the workplace, linking geographical skills to real people and jobs that make a difference.
The Rex Walford Award sits alongside the Young Geographer of the Year. Trainee and early-career teachers are being asked to submit a scheme of work and resources that use innovative and effective approaches to engaging pupils with the Young Geographer of the Year theme of Choose Geography.
Lastly, this year’s School Essay Competition, run in conjunction with the Financial Times, asks A Level or equivalent geography students to write a well-evidenced essay of 1,000 words answering the question: “Drawing on information from your daily life, what sustainability action points would you prioritise?”
The entry deadline for all three competitions is 5.00pm on Friday 4 October.
Image credit: Colin Meg/Unsplash
From the field
News
Society funded fieldwork in 2024
Many of the 70 field research projects funded through the Society’s grants programme in 2024 are now in the field.
Recipients include Professor Niki Alsford from the University of Central Lancashire, who was awarded a Ralph Brown Expedition Award to support fieldwork on the South Korean island of Jeju. In collaboration with the Haenyeo, the island’s professional female divers, the Haenyeo Voices Project combines their traditional ecological knowledge with cutting-edge scientific methods to analyse a section of the reef ecosystem.
Funded by a Frederick Soddy Postgraduate Award, Lindsay Sekilowicz at the University of Brighton has undertaken research focused on the historic collections of 19th century British botanist Richard Spruce, and contemporary art and craft production in the Upper Rio Negro region of the Northwest Amazon.
Application deadlines for the 2025 grants programme begin in November 2024.
Explore festival
The RGS Explore festival returns 28 October - 4 November, featuring two compelling Monday night lectures and a range of inspiring events celebrating expeditions and fieldwork. The Festival culminates in our flagship annual planning weekend, the Explore symposium. Speakers and workshop leaders will inspire anyone with an interest in planning future field projects and expeditions while exhibitors and Society staff will provide personalised advice and guidance.
Book now with your member discount.
Image credit: Digby Oldridge
Research and higher education
News
Annual Conference 2024
We are excited to be welcoming more than 2,000 delegates from across the globe to attend this year’s Annual Conference in London in the last week of August. Chaired by Professor Stephen Legg, the overall theme is Mapping. Mapping will be explored in all its forms, from historical cartography to the newest digital technologies and practices of map-making.
Alongside Research Group and Journal-organised sessions, highlights include the conference plenaries. This year they take the form of conversations around themes of public maps and mapping, counter-cartographies, mapping abolition and mapping COVID-19.
The opening plenary conversation brings together two very different forms of mapping as a way of exploring ways in which we can engage and create public geographies of understanding. This will be open to Fellows and Members via a livestream and afterwards on Talks on demand. To book this event, visit www.rgs.org/plenary-booking
We will also be hosting a joint plenary with the 35th International Geographical Congress, which is running at the same time in Dublin, and will be live-streamed to the RGS-IBG Annual Conference. Two respondents in London will continue the conversation regarding digital twins and the future of mapping.
The finalised conference programme is available to view online with a great range of keynotes, paper sessions, panels, workshops and more. Registration is still open with discount rates for members.
Image credit: Digby Oldridge
Dissertation prizes
Each year the annual dissertation prizes awarded by the Society’s Research Groups recognise outstanding work from undergraduate and postgraduate students at higher education institutions, both in the UK and overseas. Students recognised this year include Shona Galloway, University of Edinburgh, for her research on Decolonising the Scottish Higher geography curriculum colonial narratives and key barriers to change, as well as Lucas Evans, University of Oxford, for his work titled Forest: exploring the possibilities of digital technologies for enhancing forest restoration. There are many postgraduate prize deadlines upcoming in November and the full list of recipients is available to view online.
Collaborative Doctoral Awards
Congratulations to George Tobin and Alice Oates on the completion of their doctoral research, which made great use of the Society’s Collections. George’s project looked at the history of physical relief models in British geography as crucial components of research and teaching, while Alice’s work focused on the emergence of scientific governance in Antarctica by focusing on the Halley Bay research station. Both of their recent talks about their research are available to watch online in the Talks on demand section of our website. We look forward to welcoming four new CDA students this autumn.
Image credit: Nando Machado
Professional
News
Geography in practice
Our Geography in practice series of webinars continues to celebrate the contribution of geographers and geography in professional practice. As well as the live webinars, which provide continuing professional development for anyone working towards, or maintaining, Chartered Geographer status, recordings of past webinars make up a library of resources. Alongside each webinar recording, we add relevant geovisualisations and case studies to build valuable references.
Recent webinars include a collaboration with Queens University Belfast on how their work on the Ethnic Group Deprivation Index (EGDI) can be used to understand ethnic inequalities in local areas. Upcoming webinars this autumn will feature digital twins and data governance and management.
Professional networks
The geospatial sector is made up of a wide range of businesses, many of which are small enterprises. We are establishing a new network for geographers working in these small enterprises, providing opportunities for sharing experiences, learning and development, and a forum to discuss the particular issues faced by small geospatial businesses. Contact us at professional@rgs.org to connect with this network.
Professional collaborations
The Society is pleased to have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to further collaboration between our organisations. This strategic relationship will deliver activities to support knowledge sharing, developing professional skills and leadership.
Image credit: RGS-IBG
Events
Highlights
Autumn events programme
Browse our upcoming programme for our latest inspiring series of talks, events, webinars, conferences and exhibitions which open up new worlds, ideas and possibilities.
In particular, we look forward to welcoming you to the RGS Explore festival, which returns for its third year this autumn. During a week that celebrates all things expeditions and fieldwork, learn about globe making, discover the art of storytelling, and better understand how to apply for funding. Whether you are a student, researcher, teacher, traveller with a purpose, media professional, expedition healthcare professional, or enthusiast and supporter of exploration, Explore has discussions to inspire you.
Whether you are based in London or across the UK, your regional committees have organised a fantastic programme of fascinating events which provide great opportunities for both members and the public to come together. A few highlights include the South committee’s Monday night lecture screening, the East of England’s winter social, and the Christmas quiz in London. For those outside of our UK regions, we also have opportunities to engage with like-minded people online with our Geographical journeys: microlectures in October, and the online Christmas quiz in December.
Image credit: Ewan Harvey
People and their place
Earth Photo 2024
We are pleased to showcase some of the outstanding Earth Photo 2024 award-winning images and films, including overall winners Jean-Marc Caimi and Valentina Piccinni for their series Tropicalia, which documents the methods employed by Sicilian farmers as a response to climate change.
Created in 2018 by the Society, Forestry England and Parker Harris, Earth Photo is a world-leading programme engaging with still and moving image makers to showcase the issues affecting the climate and life on our planet.
Caimi and Piccinni’s series of photographs documents the drastic effects of climate change on food sovereignty in Sicily. Each pair of images introduces a story and ways of resistance, such as a mango shoot being prepped for grafting as Sicilian farmers shift from citrus to tropical groves, which is paired with the image of entrepreneur Francesco Verri who spearheads a network of small-scale growers in Messina, who cultivate lesser-known tropical fruits.
‘‘How the world will adapt to the new scenario of our planet can already be seen in the struggles of microcosms like Sicily, which has become the epicentre of the new tropical battle,” Caimi and Piccinni explain.
‘‘As Europe experiences a wave of extreme weather events, we documented the far-reaching consequences of climate change in Sicily. Rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, and an increased risk of extreme events have transformed what was once Europe’s breadbasket into a testing ground for adaptation and survival.’’
The Forest Ecosystem Award, selected by Forestry England, went to Marc Lathuillière for his film Ser Guardianes Madre Arbol (Becoming Guardians of Mother Tree). In northern Colombia, the Bajo Atrato basin is a Biodiversity Zone, one of the most humid and diverse areas on Earth.
Telling the story of afro-descendant communities practising small-scale sustainable agriculture and that of their environmental group, the film testifies to the threats facing this community. It invokes magical realism with infrared images and guardians wearing calabash masks.
Raymond Zhang, a 14-year-old student from Shanghai, China, was awarded the David Wolf Kaye Future Potential Award (Photo), a cash prize towards the cost of the recipient’s next project, and mentoring by a leading photographer. His photograph Walking on the Palette documents a farmer walking along terraces found in Southern China, capturing the depths of the colour palettes within the landscape.
The Earth Photo exhibition is on display at the Society until 21 August and selected shortlisted images are on display at various Forestry England and National Trust properties until February 2025.
Image credit: Walking on the palette by Raymond Zhang
Medals and awards
Meet this year’s Gold Medalists
Dr Vanessa Lawrence CB
A geographer known for her work as senior advisor to governments as well as inter-governmental and private sector organisations.
What role do you do now and how would you describe your work?
“Today, I work internationally as a senior advisor to governments and large private sector organisations, assisting them to underpin all their data with authoritative geographic information to help their decision-making. Often, I am assisting the country to build, for the first time, authoritative geographic information – the equivalent of the large-scale geographical information that is available in Great Britain from Ordnance Survey and used every day by thousands of organisations, from the NHS and the Police, to every estate agent.”
What projects are you working on?
“I am currently supporting several governments to think through their geographical information needs. Taking The Bahamas for instance, their important work will inform their assessment of climate impact, the emergency response they can provide to their citizens at a time of a hurricane, and also e-commerce and home delivery.”
What is one thing you wish you had learned earlier in your career?
“That most people are very approachable and wish to be helpful.”
Do you have any advice for someone wanting to go into your field?
“The best advice I ever received was the saying, ‘If you can dream it, you can do it.”
Stephen Venables
A mountaineer, writer and public speaker. Stephen was the first Briton to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen.
What did you want to be, or where did you want to work, when you were a teenager?
“I wanted to be performing Brahms’ first piano concerto to a sold out audience at the Royal Festival Hall, with a top orchestra like the London Philharmonic. That was never going to happen. In the real world, I had no idea what work I would actually end up doing, but I did love wild mountain country and I wanted to go climbing, preferably on big, remote, glaciated mountains.”
What has been the highlight of your career, regardless of how big or small, so far?
“Everest. Not because it was Everest, but because of the way we climbed it – the smallest team ever to climb such a hard new route on the mountain, without oxygen or high altitude porters, on the rarely visited East Face. But perhaps more exciting was the day when Maggie Body, the legendary editor at Hodder & Stoughton, said that she was going to publish my first book.”
What are you looking forward to in the future?
“In September, Skip Novak and I will be leading another expedition to South Georgia (my 12th visit to the island) where we have unfinished business – some of the last major unclimbed summits on the island.”
Geography’s next generation
Supporting young people
In a rapidly changing world, the need for a deeper understanding of our planet and innovative ideas to help tackle the challenges we face is crucial. The Society’s commitment to geography in schools and cultivating a new generation of geographers capable of addressing these needs remains unwavering as we champion the discipline’s impact and evolve how we approach this work.
Geography is attracting increasing numbers of young people – in 2023, it was the sixth most popular subject at GCSE in England. As a learned society we are keenly aware of the importance of inspiring and nurturing curiosity at an early stage, but it is just as important to encourage and support clear pathways for geographers through school and further education and into their careers.
The core of our work for the educational community focuses on developing teaching resources, providing continuing professional development (CPD) training for teachers, promoting professional standards, and highlighting study and career opportunities. The Society’s recent strategic review resulted in an investment in additional staff who will be responsible for ensuring this work reaches a wider range of schools and pupils, increasing the number and diversity of young geographers.
We know that choosing to study geography opens doors, first to university and then to fulfilling and rewarding careers. However, budding geographers need the right tools, guidance and opportunities, so from January 2025, a new Coordinator in the Schools team will deliver a formalised Choose geography programme of work. This will focus on working with schools and teachers to promote geography as a useful and relevant subject to study, providing guidance and support for school-based geographical careers education and progression through GCSE, A Level and on to university. Alongside this, we will also continue to work with universities and professional geographers to deliver a reimagined Geography Ambassadors scheme in response to the changed needs of schools post-pandemic. Through this more targeted, consistent approach, we hope pupils will be inspired to keep studying geography and develop the skills they need to make a difference as geographers.
A second new role will be dedicated to better reaching underrepresented groups and widening participation in geography. This area of work will expand upon our Geography for all project which sought to address underrepresentation as defined by income and ethnicity. The initial focus will be on connecting and amplifying some of the great external initiatives already underway across schools, universities and in business. Working in partnership with others will maximise our collective impact and facilitate the cross-pollination of approaches in pursuit of not simply a greater number, but also a wider range of students studying geography at all educational stages.
Up and coming geographers are crucial to the future of the discipline. With the support of our members and partners we are well positioned to be a stronger advocate for geography and geographers in the making.
Image credit: RGS-IBG
Venue hire
Your event
The Society’s unique and well-equipped building has long been a venue for learning, discussion and socialising. We are one of London’s leading venues for a wide range of events, from conferences, lectures and meetings, to receptions, weddings and exhibitions. With distinctive spaces and venue packages tailored to your needs, hiring our venue gives you the perfect backdrop for your event.
Maximise the impact of your gathering with state-of-the-art AV broadcast and recording facilities which enable engaging hybrid events, allowing you to share content digitally with the widest possible audiences.
Planning an event at the Society allows you to curate a truly special experience, with the option to add a Collections private view, an incredible opportunity to discover some of the Society’s fascinating historical items.
With cost-effective hire options and reduced rates for members, our expert venue team can bring your event to life.