This $500 prize is awarded annually to the student who achieves the best result in Philosophy Honours. The prize commemorates the late Professor Quentin Gibson (1913-2001) who was a member of the Department of Philosophy between 1948 and 1978. Quentin Gibson came from a distinguished family of Australian philosophers. His father, W.R. Boyce Gibson, was Professor of Philosophy in University of Melbourne and his elder brother Alexander (Sandy) succeeded his father to the Philosophy chair in Melbourne.

Quentin’s early career was spent between the Canberra University College and the newly established Australian National University. He also held positions at Oxford University and the University of Western Australia. His work was characterised by a distinct aversion to obscurantism and obfuscation, which he brought to bear both on his elegant and lucid style of writing, and in his teaching. Both were exemplified in his first book, an introduction for students, Facing Philosophical Problems (1948). Characteristic of his approach to  philosophy was a rejection of any forms of relativism as regards truth. Similarly, there cannot be degrees of truth, or different kinds of existence, a position for which he argued in his final book, The Existence Principle, which was published in 1998, his 85th year.

After retirement Quentin Gibson remained philosophically active, writing books and attending philosophy seminars until his death, in 2001. For more information, see Award conditions and eligibility .