HEMMINGS, Professor Alan Dudley
The New Zealand Antarctic Medal
For services to Antarctic law and environmental protection.
Professor Alan Hemmings is an internationally recognised scholar who has contributed to Antarctic science, policy and conservation for more than 40 years.
Professor Hemmings is a widely cited authority on Antarctic geopolitics, focusing since the 1990s on Antarctic policy, governance and legal structures, having earlier published on seabird ecology and behaviour. His numerous publications include co-authoring or editing books on polar law and Antarctic politics, including the ‘Handbook on the Politics of Antarctica’. He produced or co-led Antarctic publications for the United Nations Environment Program between 2002 and 2004. He has made valuable contributions with New Zealand and Antarctic and Southern Coalition delegations to numerous Antarctic Treaty System diplomatic and scientific meetings. He served on New Zealand’s Antarctic Environmental Assessment and Review Panel from 1991 to 2000. He has contributed to various Antarctic-related advisory committees and societies, including the Advisory Committee for the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists since 2007 and is active with the New Zealand Antarctic Society’s Science and Advocacy Committee. He has been instrumental in building Antarctic links between Australia, New Zealand and the wider Asia-Pacific region. He helped establish the University of Canterbury’s Antarctic Research Centre, Gateway Antarctica, in 1999. He is internationally sought as a supervisor and examiner for PhD and Masters candidates in Antarctic Studies. Professor Hemmings’ is actively researching in the interdisciplinary field of Critical Antarctic Geopolitics and is on the working group of Antarctic Rights, a global initiative campaigning for the recognition of Antarctica as an autonomous entity with rights on decision-making.