At the start of the millennium Council reviewed medalsand prizes and decided to discontinue the Gold Medal(which had not in any case been awarded for sometime) and establish in its place the Society'sAward. This Award will be made every two or threeyears in recognition of outstanding scholarship inAsian studies. Having considered a number oftenders, Council commissioned Ms DanutaSolowiej-Wedderburn to design and cast a medalbearing versions of two of the original Daniellimages: the elephant and howdah on one side and thebanyan-tree on the other (see John Hansman, “TheEmblems, Medals and Medallists of the Royal AsiaticSociety”, JRAS [1984 Part 1], pp.99–119. Council approved the nomination of Mr JohnM. Gullick, who was recommended by a searchcommittee (chaired by the Director) to be the firstrecipient of the RAS Award. On 10 January 2002 thePresident presented the RAS Award for 2001 to MrGullick who replied with a lecture, “An Indianofficial in Singapore: Governor Cavanagh(1859–1867)”.