Royal Society Environment Prize Lecture by Professor Andrew Balmford FRS

The Royal Society Environment Medal 2025 is awarded to Professor Andrew Balmford FRS for groundbreaking contributions to conservation science, having built transformative partnerships and redefining the landscape of conservation education.

Professor Balmford is a conservation scientist whose main research interests are the costs and benefits of effective conservation, quantifying the changing state of nature, identifying efficient conservation responses, and exploring how conservation might best be reconciled with activities such as farming. He tackles these questions through fieldwork, analyses of large databases, and modelling. To have most impact, he focuses his research in developing countries and collaborates closely with conservation practitioners and colleagues in other disciplines.

He was awarded the Zoological Society of London’s Marsh Award for Conservation Biology in 2000, and in 2002, Scientific American listed him amongst the top 50 visionaries building a better world. In 2014, he was listed as one of Thomson Reuters’ Highly Cited Researchers. He helped to set up the Cambridge Conservation Forum, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and the annual Student Conference on Conservation Science. His 2012 book, Wild Hope, highlights success stories in conservation and argues that cautious optimism is essential in tackling environmental challenges.

• The event is free to join, please register via Eventbrite for a ticket
• You will only be able to join us in person on the day if you registered for an in person ticket on EventBrite.
• Live subtitles will be available in-person and virtually

• This lecture can be attended in-person at the Royal Society
• Doors will open to the public at 6.00pm GMT

Find travel and accessibility information on our website

• The lecture will also be livestreamed here and on the Royal Society YouTube channel
• You can take part in the live Q&A via Slido
• This event will be recorded (including the live Q&A) and the recording will be available on YouTube soon after the event
• For all enquiries, please contact [email protected]

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