Lincoln University will present five awards of distinction to alumni during its 2025 Graduation celebrations in May. 

They are the Bledisloe Medal, the university's oldest award, instituted in 1931; an Honorary Doctorate, instituted from 1991 after Lincoln attained autonomous university status; an Alumni International Medal, instituted in 2003 on the occasion of Lincoln University's 125th anniversary; and the Global Science Medal, first awarded in 2024, with two recipients this year. 

The Bledisloe Medal acknowledges distinguished career contributions advancing New Zealand's interests; the Alumni International Medal recognises outstanding career contributions by an alumnus resident in a country other than New Zealand; an Honorary Doctorate acknowledges lifetime achievements and career excellence of high and influential order; and the Global Science Medal recognises the current or future impacts of career achievements and the international impact of work in scientific, technological, economic, cultural or innovative areas. 

Bringing reputational credit to Lincoln University is also a criterion in each case. 

The Bledisloe Medal recipient is Dr Robyn Dynes, a Principal Scientist and farmer Engagement Specialist with AgResearch, Lincoln. In a career spanning almost 35 years to date, Dr Dynes works at the interface of forage and animal sciences, and her influence has been immense as a change agent at the meeting point of agriculture, science and politics. 

The Doctor of Commerce Honoris Causa degree is being conferred on alumnus Andrew ('Andy') Macfarlane of Mid Canterbury who has given a lifetime of service to farming, farm consultancy, and governance roles in national and international agricultural organisations. Macfarlane Rural Business, co-founded by Andy, has assisted numerous farmers to innovate and build their agricultural operations with resilience and sound foundations. Andy's abiding principle is that farming, research and education must work together for the common goal and purpose of sustainable long-term profitability in the primary production sector. 

The Alumni International Medal is being awarded jointly to landscape architecture graduates Leighton Pace and Sam Martin, co-owners of London-based Exterior Architecture Ltd, one of Britain's leading landscape architecture companies. Together the pair and their company have contributed to the transformation of many significant London locations, including the iconic Battersea Power station site. 

The Global Science Medal features two awards this year, to Emeritus Professor of Molecular Pathology David Palmer and to Professor Julian Rayner (in image above). 

In a 30-year academic career at Lincoln University Professor Palmer has led the university's Batten disease research team, contributing significantly to the global effort to understand this devastating and fatal neurological disorder. The Lincoln research, using a sheep model of the disease, has materially advanced work towards a gene therapy to slow or halt the inexorable progress of the disease. 

Professor Rayner's career is focussed on the worldwide scourge of malaria and, specifically, understanding the invasion of red blood cells by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, delivered to the human body by mosquitoes. 

Based at the University of Cambridge, Professor Rayner and his team are engaged in promising work on a protein used by the parasite to recognise red blood cells. This protein is now a high priority for vaccine development, and the first large-scale human trials have shown encouraging results. 

The Bledisloe Medal will be awarded at Lincoln University's Graduation Ceremony in Christchurch Town Hall on the afternoon of Friday 9 May. The Honorary doctorate will be conferred at the morning ceremony on the same day. 

The Alumni International Medal will be awarded at the Graduation Ceremony in Christchurch Town Hall in the afternoon ceremony on Thursday 8 May. 

The two Global Science Medals will be presented at the Chancellor's Cocktail Function on the Lincoln University campus on Wednesday 7 May.