Professor Emerita Jacalyn Duffin has been awarded the 2023 Jason A. Hannah Medal by the Royal Society of Canada for her book, Stanley’s Dream: The Medical Expedition to Easter Island (MQUP, 2019).
This marks the third time (2001, 2009) that she has received the prestigious Hannah Medal from the RSC, making her just its second three-time recipient. The biennial medal is awarded for an important publication within the last five years in the history of medicine and is named after Queen's alumnus Dr. Jason A. Hannah (Class of 1928) who helped found Canada’s first physician-sponsored, private provider of health insurance, Associated Medical Services Inc. (AMS).
Professor Duffin's explores the 1964-65 expedition of an international team of 38 scientists and assistants led by Montreal physician Stanley Skoryna to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to conduct an unprecedented survey of its biosphere. Based on archival papers, diaries, photographs, and interviews with 17 members of the original team, her work sets the expedition in its global context within the early days of ecological research and the understudied International Biological Program.
To read more on this remarkable achievement and Professor Duffin's last work, check out the Queen's Gazette's article "Royal Society awards" from last Tuesday.
