The South Georgia Association is delighted to announce the award for the Morag Husband Campbell Medal for 2022 to Professor Tony Martin, “in recognition of his outstanding and dedicated contributions to South Georgia – in particular his pivotal role in the South Georgia Heritage Trust Habitat Restoration Programme of the Island and as a consequence promoting a wider appreciation of these islands”
The Medal has been made possible by a generous bequest from a long-standing supporter of the Association, Miss Morag Husband Campbell. She was so enthralled when visiting South Georgia, she determined to leave a bequest to the SGA. The Medal comprises a Sterling silver relief medallion, 60mm in diameter. The name of the awardee is inscribed on the reverse.
The Recipient Professor Martin, on secondment to the South Georgia Heritage Trust, led their Habitat Restoration Project, which successfully reversed the devastation caused by rats that threatened the globally important seabird sanctuary of South Georgia, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic. This was the world’s largest rodent eradication operation.
Following three seasons of baiting the Island by helicopter, a comprehensive survey at the end of 2017 failed to detect a single rodent. Native bird numbers are recovering and the song of the endemic South Georgia pipit, previously under threat of extinction due to rodent predation, is now heard everywhere on the island.
In recognition of his exceptional leadership Professor Tony Martin was named as Conservationist of the Year in 2016 by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
Prior to the Habitat Restoration Project, Professor Martin spent many years as a cetacean biologist with the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St. Andrews, before transferring to the British Antarctic Survey in a broader role, leading investigations of the Southern Ocean foodweb.
He joined the University of Dundee in 2010, and has also been a UK delegate to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission since 1979. Tony Martin is a keen seabird biologist and passionate about conservation,
The Award will be presented to Tony Martin at the next meeting of the Association.
Download a Press Release : Morag Husband Campbell Medal 2022 Press Release (390.73 KB)