Year | Congress | Recipient | Country | Citation |
| 2024 | Brazil | John Melack | USA | Comparative studies of tropical African lakes and high-elevations lakes in the Sierra Nevada, linking ecological and hydrological processes on Amazon floodplains, long-term measurements and analyses of saline Mono Lake and in coastal California catchments, to applications of innovative remote sensing to inland waters. |
| | | Vera Huszar | Brazil | Research area has been in planktonic aquatic ecology, mainly in plankton interactions, macroecology, functional diversity, C balance, recovery and mitigation of cyanobacteria blooms, covering coastal lagoons, floodplain lakes, estuaries, reservoirs, fisheries, and rivers in tropical and subtropical areas. |
| 2022 | Germany | Sally MacIntyre | USA | For her contributions to the field of physical limnology, studying turbulence links to biology and biogeochemistry of lakes around the world. |
| | | Jose Tundisi | Brazil | For his work on the integrated management of watershed, reservoirs, and lakes. His research is focused on tropical and subtropical inland waters of South and Central America. |
| 2020 | South Korea | Tamar Zohary | Israël | For her global leadership in the area of phytoplankton taxonomy and ecology, and high-level leadership for research conducted on Lake Kinneret. For her long-serving and very active participation in SIL as the General Secretary and Treasurer, and for being a role model for young women interested in pursuing a scientific career. |
| | | Nelson Hairston | United States | For blending theory with an analysis of field patterns and manipulative experiments, he has provided valuable insight into interactions between ecology and evolution, and the causes and consequences of life-history variation in freshwater zooplankton. For his fostering of scholarly excellence in his students and colleagues alike, and for contributing to his local and international academic communities. |
| 2018 | China | John P Smol | Canada | For his research developing the field of paleolimnology and its applications |
| | | Lars Tranvik | Sweden | For his research on the role of carbon transformation on the functioning of lakes and his leadership in limnology |
| 2016 | Italy | Ursula Gaedke | Germany | For her research on plankton structure dynamics and her leadership in limnology |
| | | John R. Jones | USA | For his research on reservoir limnology and his outstanding contributions to SIL |
| | | Michael L. Pace | USA | For his contributions to foodweb dynamics and carbon cycling and for his leadership in limnology |
| 2013 | Hungary | John Downing | USA | For his research in the limnology of agricultural landscapes and leadership in limnology |
| | | Jacob Kalff | Canada | For his independent, thoughtful and influential investigations in limnology |
| | | P. Sam Lake | Australia | For original research in stream ecology and leadership in the conservation of freshwater ecosystems |
| 2010 | South Africa | Brian Allanson | South Africa | For his leadership of the development of limnology in South Africa |
| | | Erik Jeppesen and the Section of Lake Ecology at NERI | Denmark | For their substantial contributions to shallow lake ecology |
| | | Judith Meyer | USA | For her fundamental contributions to the functioning of microbial communities in flowing waters and advocacy of the importance of freshwaters in public policy |
| 2007 | Canada | Carolyn Burns | New Zealand | For her outstanding studies on physiology and population dynamics of southern hemisphere zooplankton and food-web interactions, as well as her indefatigable and successful endeavor to New Zealand lakes, and for her service to SIL |
| | | Stephen Carpenter | USA | For research that has built bridges between ecological theory, ecosystem experiments, and management of complex limnological problems; his work has elucidated the importance of the trophic cascade and regime shifts in the management of lakes |
| | | Brian Moss | United Kingdom | For creating through his research and scientific leadership a fundamentally new understanding of shallow-lake ecosystems |
| 2004 | Finland | Peter Cullen | Australia | For his exemplary scientific leadership and extraordinary efforts to communicate complex limnological and water resource issues to colleagues and especially to decision-makers, which over the past three decades have led to improved understanding about, and wiser allocation of, critical water resources in Australia |
| | | Brij Gopal | India | For his major contributions to the biology and management of aquatic and wetland ecosystems, and for his perseverance in encouraging understanding and improvement of limnology of developing countries |
| | | Johannes Ringelberg | The Netherlands | For his successful application of physiological first principles to the study of zooplankton ecology and the explanation of ecosystem processes, and for his continuing efforts to promote fundamental research in limnology |
| 2001 | Australia | Christian Lévêque | France | |
| | | Thomas Northcote | Canada | |
| | | Colin Reynolds | United Kingdom | |
| 1998 | Ireland | Z. Maciej Gliwicz | Poland | |
| | | Noel Hynes | Canada | |
| | | William Lewis, Jr. | USA | |
| 1995 | Brazil | Winfried Lampert | Germany | |
| | | Gene Likens | USA | |
| | | Rosemary Lowe-McConnell | United Kingdom | |
| 1992 | Spain | A. D. Hasler | USA | |
| | | Vladimír Sládecek | Czech Republic | |
| | | Robert Wetzel | USA | |
| 1989 | Germany | Ramon Margalef | Spain | |
| | | David Schindler | Canada | |
| | | Jack Talling | United Kingdom | |
| 1987 | New Zealand | R. M. Jónasson | | |
| | | Dietrich Uhlmann | Germany | |
| | | Richard Vollenweider | Canada | |
| 1983 | France | Jaroslav Hrbácek | Czech Republic | |
| | | Eugen A. Thomas | Switzerland | |
| | | Livia Tonolli-Pirocchi | Italy | |
| 1980 | Japan | W. Thomas Edmondson | USA | |
| | | Hans-Joachim Elster | Germany | |
| | | David G. Frey | USA | |
| 1977 | Denmark | Nielson E. Steemann | Denmark | |
| | | E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung | Germany | |
| | | Geogiy Georgievich Winberg | Russia | |
| 1974 | Canada | William Rodhe | Sweden | |
| 1971 | USSR | S. I. Kuznetsov | Russia | |
| | | Waldemar Ohle | Germany | |
| 1968 | Israel | Vittorio Tonolli | Italy | |
| 1965 | Poland | Kaj Berg | Denmark | |
| | | Clifford H. Mortimer | United Kingdom | |
| | | Vladimir I. Shadin | Russia | |
| 1962 | USA | Heikki Järnefelt | Finland | |
| | | Siniša Stankovic | Serbia | |
| 1959 | Austria | Gunnar Alm | Sweden | |
| | | Friedrich Hustedt | Germany | |
| | | George E. Hutchinson | USA | |
| 1956 | Finland | | | |
| 1953 | England | Ingo Findenegg | Austria | |
| | | Friedrich Lenz | Germany | |
| 1950 | Belgium | Edward A. Birge | USA | |
| | | Chancey Juday | USA | |
| 1948 | Switzerland | American Society of Limnology and Oceanography | USA | |
| | | Freshwater Biological Association | United Kingdom | |
| | | Robert Lauterborn | Germany | |
| 1939 | Sweden | Gottfried Huber-Pestalozzi | Switzerland | |
| 1937 | France | Heinrich C. Redeke | Netherlands | |
| 1934 | Yugoslavia | Carl J. Wesenberg-Lund | Denmark | |
| 1932 | The Netherlands | August Thienemann | Germany | |
| 1930 | Hungary | Franz Ruttner | Austria | |
