Osman Hill Memorial Medal
PSGB established the Osman Hill Memorial Lectures in 1977, to commemorate the influential anatomist and primatologist, who died in 1975. The lecturer, who also receives a medal, must be a distinguished primatologist, with the lecture given as part of the programme of a meeting. The lectures are given at intervals of one year or more.
Nominations are currently closed. Our next award will be in 2026.
Osman Hill Memorial Lecturers:
1978 M.H. Day - Human evolution: fossils and concepts
1980 R.A. Hinde - Primatology and the social sciences
1982 F. Bourliere - The niches of primates within tropical rain-forest
1984 P.M. Butler - Problems of dental evolution in the higher primates
1986 J.P. Hearn - Early embryonic development in monkeys and man
1988 H. Kummer - Exploring primate social cognition: where do we stand?
1990 R.D. Martin - Goeldi and the dwarves: evolutionary biology of the small New World monkeys
1992 J.H. Crook - Ecology and culture in the adaptive radiation of Tibetan-speaking peoples in the Himalayas
1994 R.I.M. Dunbar - A general theory of primate social systems
1996 T. Rowell - The myth of peculiar primates
1998 C.B. Stringer - The origin of our species
2000 A.F. Dixson - Primate comparative anatomy and the evolution of reproduction
2002 I. Tattersall - Becoming human
2004 C. van Schaik - Correlated evolution between cognitive and cultural abilities
2006 A. Jolly - Survival in a forest fragment: Ringtailed lemurs of Berenty
2008 W.C. McGrew - Chasing chimpanzee culture
2010 A. Whiten - Cultural elements in a chimpanzee community (Goodall, 1973) 37 years on
2012 S. Bearder - Primate Taxonomy in the Field: New insights into Biodiversity, Biogeography and Phylogeny
2013 P. Lee - Reproductive costs and social evolution in primates and other mammals
2014 R. Crompton - A very conservative tribe: The Hominins
2016 C. Groves - Life Mysteries of Primate Diversity
2018 R. Barton - Brains growing on the tree of life: the what, when, how and why of primate brain evolution
2019 H. Buchanan-Smith - Promoting Primate Wefare - Past, Present and Future
2020 Professor L. Aiello - Reflections on the Expensive Tissue Hypothesis (Part 1; Part 2)
2021 Professor C. Hill - Primate crop foraging, crop damage and conflict narratives
2022 Dr Anthony Rylands - Primate Taxonomy and Conservation
2024 Dr Anna Nekaris - The myth of the solitary primate: using new technology to dispel an old misconception
