Glittering prizes

The Royal Geographical Society has awarded: William Graf , of Arizona State University, the Founder's Medal ; Peter Dicken , of the University of Manchester, the Victoria Medal ; Linda McDowell , of University College London, the Back Award ; Andrés Rodríguez-Pose , of the London School of Economics, the Gill Memorial Award ; Ifan Shepherd , of Middlesex University Business School, the Taylor and Francis Award ; Carole Rakodi , of the University of Wales, Cardiff, the Edward Heath Award ; and Mick Jenkins , of the Royal School of Military Survey, the Geographical Award .

University College London has awarded honorary degrees to: Itsuko Hasegawa , a Japanese architect; Eric Kandel , who received the Nobel prize for medicine last year; Joseph Rotblat , Nobel peace laureate for 1995 and founder of the Pugwash organisation; science author Benjamin Lewin ; and Max van der Stoel , high commissioner on national minorities for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

David Payne , director of the optoelectronics research centre at the University of Southampton, is to receive the Basic Research Award of the Eduard Rhein Foundation .

John Pethica , of the University of Oxford, has been awarded the Royal Society 's Hughes Medal , in recognition of his contributions to nanometre and atomic-scale mechanics.

Crosbie Smith , professor of the history of science at the University of Kent, has been awarded the History of Science Society's Pfizer Prize for his book The Science of Energy: A Cultural History of Energy Physics in Victorian Britain .