Professor Geoffrey Eglinton FRS, of the University of Bristol - 1999 Martin Gold Medal

Geoff Eglinton is one of the founding fathers of modern organic geochemistry and is responsible for many of the geochemical tools and concepts that Earth scientists today take for granted.  His work has been characterised by three main elements – insight into big problems of global significance, the ability to bridge widely separate disciplines and the skill to assemble groups of key scientists to solve the problems. 

His work has been of inestimable academic and practical value – for example, the invention of the petroleum geochemical biomarker maturity and facies assessment approach was a direct result of Geoff’s pioneering work.  Without it, modern petroleum biomarker geochemistry simply would not exist.  Geoff and his colleagues have also given to Earth science molecular yardsticks for palaeoclimate study.