the HECTOR MEMORIAL MEDAL (formerly known as the Hector Memorial Medal and Prize) is awarded annually for outstanding contribution to the advancement of the particular branch of science. It is awarded by the Royal Society of New Zealand in memory of Sir James Hector. It is less prestigious than the government-funded Rutherford Medal, which is given for exceptional contributions to the advancement and promotion of public awareness, knowledge and understanding in addition to eminent research or technological practice by a person or group in any field of science, mathematics, social science, or technolog

most of the following names from the above site lead to bios


Year - Recipient

1915 Patrick Marshall
1916 Ernest Rutherford
1917 Charles Chilton
1918 Thomas Frederic Cheeseman
1919 Philip Wilfred Robertson
1920 Stephenson Percy Smith
1921 Robert Speight
1922 Clinton Coleridge Farr
1923 George Vernon Hudson
1924 Donald Petrie
1925 Bernard Cracroft Aston
1926 Henry Devenish Skinner
1927 Charles Andrew Cotton
1928 Duncan MacLaren Young Sommerville
1929 George Malcolm Thomson
1930 John Ernest Holloway
1931 William Percival Evans
1932 Te Rangi Hiroa (Peter H. Buck)
1933 John Marwick, William Noel Benson
1934 Charles Ernest Weatherburn
1935 William Blaxland Benham
1936 Walter Reginald Brook Oliver
1937 John Reader Hosking
1938 Herbert William Williams
1939 John Arthur Bartrum
1940 Donald Bannerman Macleod
1941 Harold John Finlay
1942 Harry Howard Allan
1943 Lindsay Heathcote Briggs
1944 Johannes Carl Andersen
1945 John Henderson
1946 Henry George Forder
1947 Arthur William Baden Powell
1948 Gordon Herriot Cunningham
1949 Robert Anthony Robinson
1950 Ernest Beaglehole
1951 Francis John Turner
1952 Keith Edward Bullen
1953 Lancelot Eric Richdale
1954 Lucy May Cranwell Smith
1955 Francis Brian Shorland
1956 Roger Shepherd Duff
1957 Harold William Wellman
1958 Alister George McLellan
1959 Howard Barraclough Fell
1960 Edward Edinborough Chamberlain
1961 Harry Bloom
1962 Ralph O'Reilly Piddington
1963 Charles Alexander Fleming
1964 Derek Frank Lawden
1965 Richard Kenneth Dell
1966 John Thorpe Holloway
1967 Richard Conrad Cambie
1968 Gilbert Edward Archey
1969 Douglas Saxon Coombs
1970 Brian Garner Wybourne
1971 Ira James Cunningham
1972 Edward George Bollard
1973 Michael Philip Hartshorn
1974 Herbert Dudley Purves
1975 Robert Cecil Hayes
1976 John Newton Dodd
1977 Campbell Stuart Wemyss Reid
1978 Richard Ellis Ford Matthews
1979 Leon Francis Phillips
1980 Graham Collingwood Liggins
1981 Trevor Hatherton
1982 Roy Patrick Kerr
1983 Raymond Robert Forster
1984 Roderick Leon Bieleski
1985 Peter Bernard David de la Mare
1986 Robin Wayne Carrell
1987 Albert James Ellis
1988 Daniel Frank Walls
1989 Patricia Rose Bergquist
1990 Peter Wardle
1991 Warren Richard Roper
1992 Roger Curtis Green
1993 Richard Irving Walcott
1994 Geoffrey Ernest Stedman
1995 Robert Dudley Jolly
1996 John Charles Butcher
1997 Edward Neil Baker
1998 Paul Terence Callaghan, Jeffery Lewis Tallon
1999 George Arthur Frederick Seber
2000 No award
2001 Peter Adolf Schwerdtfeger
2003 Kenneth John Dallas MacKenzie
2005 Ian Hugh Witten
2006 Richard Furneaux
2007 Timothy George Haskell
2008 Gaven Martin