University of Wollongong Professor Lesley Head awarded a Vega Medal

King Carl XVI Gustav honoured Prof Head with the Vega Medal, which is given periodically to an individual who has displayed excellence in the fields of physical geography, human geography and anthropology.

The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, which awards the medal, recognised Prof Head as a "strong voice of human geography in climate research discussions and debates".

Prof Head said she was thrilled to receive the award which gave her the opportunity to discuss her research and work.

"Sweden has a big part of my heart, and I am thrilled by this recognition from colleagues here," she said.

"The King is known for his interest in environmental and climate-change issues, and he was keen to hear about the collaborative Swedish-Australian research," she said.

"My colleague Professor Marie Stenseke and I discussed our paper Do Cows Belong in Nature? with him.

"In Sweden, with a very long agricultural history, cattle are part of what people understand as nature.

"In Australia by contrast, we don't think of cattle as belonging to the natural environment because they are not native. In fact we often see them as damaging to natural environments."

"As an enthusiastic cattle farmer, the King was interested to hear about this cultural comparison."

Awarded since 1881, the medal is named for the ship on which Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld discovered the North East Passage, and celebrates the anniversary of his return to Stockholm.

Prof Head's association with Sweden dates back to 2005, when she was the King's Visiting Professor of Environmental Science at Kristianstad University's Landscape Science program.

At UOW, Prof Head is director of the Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research, which focuses on cultural and social impacts of environmental issues.