Professor David Thomas receives British Society for Geomorphology award

15 July 2025

Warmest congratulations to Hertford Professor of Geography David Thomas, who has been awarded the BSG David Linton Award for 2025.

This award is given to a geomorphologist who has made a leading contribution to the discipline over a sustained period. The BSG announced the 2025 award as follows:

“Professor David Thomas is a hugely influential scholar who has made outsized contributions to dryland and desert geomorphology research. His phenomenal track record covers contemporary processes that shape arid landscapes, reconstruction of Quaternary landscapes, and the interplay between desertification and human migration and mobility. He has published over 220 refereed papers, 11 books and been a PI or CI on numerous competitively funded research proposals. His work has attracted over 23,000 citations.

Whilst sustaining this impressive research track record, Professor Thomas has also been an outstanding advocate for our discipline, championing geomorphology through a number of senior national and international leadership positions including Chair of the REF2021 Geography and Environmental Studies sub panel, Chair of the QAA Geography benchmark review panel in 2013-14, Vice-President of the Research and Higher Education Committee at the RGS, and Chair of the (then) BGRG in 2002-2003. He has also served as Head of Department at both Sheffield (1997-2000) and Oxford (2008-2012) and has been invited to lead evaluations in Kuwait, Israel, Estonia, Hong Kong amongst others.

Professor Thomas has already received a number of awards in recognition of his outstanding research including the RGS Victoria Medal, El-Baz Award from the Geological Society of America and was in the inaugural BSG Fellowship. He has made a sustained and enormous contribution towards geomorphology and is a highly deserving recipient of the Linton Award.”