Past winners of the Bicentenary Medal

The RSA Bicentenary Medal was instituted in 1954 to commemorate the founding of the RSA over two hundred years earlier and has been awarded annually to a variety of individuals for their outstanding contributions to the advancement of design in industry and society. 

In 2023, the Bicentenary Medal was awarded to recognise outstanding and demonstrable contributions, through design practice, towards an equitable and regenerative world where people and planet flourish in the long-term.  

2022: Professor Janine Benyus

Janine is co-founder of the Biomimicry Institute - a biologist, author and innovation consultant who has inspired organisations and innovators worldwide to bring nature’s genius to the design table.

2021: Dr Daniel Christian Wahl

Dr Wahl works internationally as a consultant and educator in regenerative design, whole systems design and transformative innovation.

2018: Deanna Van Buren

Deanna Van Buren is the design director and co-founder of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJ+DS), an architecture and real estate development firm that works across disciplines to attack the root causes of mass incarceration. 

2015: Andrea Cooper

Andrea Cooper (previously Siodmok), Head of the Cabinet Office Policy Lab explores how design is helping government think differently about future policy. 

2014: Susan Woodward

Susan Woodward OBE, founding director of The Space and Sharp Projects and Creative Media Champion for the City of Manchester, explains how re-designing urban environments sparks dynamism and connectivity.  

2013: Barry Quirk

London Borough of Lewisham chief executive Barry Quirk discussed how he has used design as a tool in making public services better, quicker and cheaper. 

2011: Ken Arnold

Dr Ken Arnold talks about contemporary interactions between the arts and sciences and how humanity's core concern with health, medicine and wellbeing can be explored within a cultural context. 

1954 Sir Colin Anderson

1955 Sir Charles Tennyson

1956 Sir Walter Worboys

1957 Sir Ernest Goodale

1958 John Gloag

1959 Frank A Mercer

1960 J Cleveland Belle

1961 Audrey Withers

1962 Sir Robin Darwin

1963 Sir Paul Reilly

1964 Anthony S Heal

1965 Hans Juda

1966 G Graham McK Hughes

1967 Harold Glover

1968 Marcus Brumwell

1969 Sir Duncan Oppenheim

1970 T H C Worthington

1971 Sir James Richards

1972 Rosamind and Leslie Julius

1973 James S Cousins

1974 Geoffrey Dunn

1975 Viscount Eccles

1976 Jack Pritchard

1977 Brooke Crutchley

1979 Sir William Coldstream

1980 Viscount Caldecote

1981 Deryck Healey

1982 Sir Terence Conran

1983 David Maroni

1984 Rowley Atterbury

1985 Sir Kenneth Corfield

1986 John Butcher

1987 Fiona MacCarthy

1988 Peter Gorb

1989 Louis van Praag

1990 Sir Peter Parker

1991 Sir Norman Payne

1992 Jeremy Fry

1993 Marquess of Bute

1994 Helen Auty

1995 Sir John Egan

1996 Zeev Aram

1997 Margaret Harris

1998 John Sorrell

1999 Stuart Lipton

2000 Wally Olins

2001 Sir Christopher Frayling

2002 Lady Hamlyn

2004 Deyan Sudjic

2005 Sheridan Coakley

2007 Lord Puttnam

2008 Tom Bloxham

2009 Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr

2010 David Constantine

2011 Ken Arnold

2013 Barry Quirk

2014 Susan Woodward

2015 Andrea Siodmok

2017 Mary Mullin

2018 Deanna Van Buren

2021 Dr Daniel Christian Wahl