Lapworth Medal awarded to Derek Briggs

Yale paleontologist Derek Briggs has won the Lapworth Medal, the highest award of the Paleontological Association.

 Briggs is the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Geology & Geophysics and curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. He is a leading authority on fossils from the Burgess Shale of British Columbia and his research has focused on the preservation and evolutionary significance of exceptionally preserved fossil biotas.

 The Paleontological Association is based in the United Kingdom and has an international membership. Briggs was awarded the Lapworth Medal at the association’s annual meeting in Valencia, Spain.

 The medal is awarded to a paleontologist who has made a significant contribution to science via a substantial body of research. It was first awarded in 2000 to Harry Whittington, the Woodwardian Professor of Geology at the University of Cambridge, who was Briggs’ PhD advisor.

 “I was delighted and honored to receive this recognition from my fellow paleontologists across the Atlantic,” Briggs said.