Professor of geography Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and winner of the 1999 National Medal of Science, was awarded the 2012 RBG Kew International Medal by the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. The medal is given to individuals who have made a significant contribution to science and conservation.
"Diamond’s unique background, covering the fields of evolutionary biology, anthropology, ecology and human history, make him the perfect recipient for this award, first established in 2009 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Gardens," an announcement noted.
Diamond has also been selected to receive the 2013 Wolf Prize in Agriculture, regarded as agriculture’s equivalent of a Nobel Prize, from Israel’s Wolf Foundation. Seven scientists and an architect are being recognized with this year's awards, which will be presented on May 25 by Israeli President Shimon Peres during a special Knesset session.
Diamond is being honored for his "pioneering theories of crop domestication, the rise of agriculture and its influences on the development and demise of human societies, as well as its impact on the ecology of the environment." He shares this year's agriculture prize with Rutgers University Professor Joachim Messing.
"The enormous and impressive scope of Prof. Jared's scholarship (depth and breadth) that focuses on the role of agriculture in human development is worthy for recognition by the Wolf Prize in Agriculture," an announcement noted. "More importantly, this recognition promotes the implementation of measures, learnt from the history of agriculture, to ascertain success in agriculture's main objective, namely continued provision of food while preserving our natural resources."