Top awardees to be honoured at graduation time

Outstanding national and international contributions by Lincoln University alumni in fields ranging from the preservation of the endangered snow leopard to marine biology and geology in the world’s oceans will be recognised with honours and awards to be made principally at Graduation, 10 May 2024.

The awards, nine in total, cover honorary doctorates, medals and a trophy, all confirmed by the Lincoln University Council before the close of 2023.

The list is headed by honorary doctorates for former Chancellor Steve Smith and the Director of innovation consultancy Te Kaihau Ltd Deborah Gilbertson CNZM.

Smith took on the leadership of the university over 2016-2018 at a critical time of financial jeopardy and led it through a period of transformation to a bright re-focused future. He has also been a leader in the New Zealand wine industry being co-founder of Craggy Range Vineyards, and he was the first New Zealand viticulturist to be awarded the distinguished qualification Master of Wine.

Gilbertson is Managing Director of Te Kaihau Ltd dedicated to growing leaders to innovate for a better world, and has a strong academic and entrepreneurial background in business, science and technology.  In a wide-ranging career, Gilbertson, a United Nations award winner, has helped establish important women in science and women in agriculture networks.

The university’s top medal, the Bledisloe Medal, goes to the Director-General of the Department of Conservation Penny Nelson. The Lincoln University Alumni International Medal is being awarded jointly to ocean explorer Robert McCallum and Dr Ghana Shyam Gurung of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Nepal, a champion of the WWF Snow Leopard network. 

The university’s Global Science Medal is being awarded to Distinguished Professor of Plant Biosecurity Philip Hulme, a leading international scientist in biosecurity.

Distinguished Professor Philip Hulme - Global Science Medal recipient

Two Lincoln University Medals for outstanding voluntary contributions to the culture and fabric of Lincoln University will be awarded. One to Lincoln University tutor John Gould, reviver of the Sustainability Action Group for the Environment, and one to the New Zealand Honorary Consul to Nepal, Lisa Choegyal MNZM, who has significantly assisted Lincoln University’s activities in Nepal.

The Ngāti Moki Trophy for Māori leadership goes to Professor Hirini Matunga, who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in teaching and research in Māori and Indigenous studies at Lincoln University. In 2006 Professor Matunga helped formalise the university’s long-standing relationship with the  tangata whenua of Taumutu with a pioneering Charter of Understanding between Lincoln University and the Taumutu Runanga.