Professor Ian Aitken is a leading scholar of the British documentary film movement of the 1930s.  He has published a substantial corpus of work including ten books, twelve book chapters and six journal articles.  His book Film and Reform is regarded as the most important book on this subject and the first to introduce a substantial element of theory into the field of documentary film studies.  He has successfully obtained four General Research Funds from the Research Grants Council in addition to four external UK grants, which is an impressive feat for humanities scholars. 

Recently Professor Aitken opened up a new branch of research in British and colonial official film studies based on archival research.  His article “The Development of Official Film-making in Hong Kong” published in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and TV in December 2012 is the first to discuss colonial official films in Hong Kong.  This article has attracted much interest and created new opportunities for collaborations across the globe.  His next step is to expand this area of research to cover relations between Hong Kong and Singapore over official film-making during the period 1945-70. 

Professor Aitken’s exceptional scholarship has earned him twice the honour of the School Award for Outstanding Performance in Scholarly Work.  He also received in 2006 the Dartmouth Medal, which was presented by the American Libraries Association for his book, Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film, for being an “Outstanding Reference Work of the Year”. 

Professor Aitken’s reputation as an expert in his fields is evident from frequent invitations he receives to serve as reviewer/editor for journals and research grants/schemes.  He has been a Member on the advisory/editorial boards of the journals Studies in European Cinema since 2005 and Studies in Documentary Film since 2007.  In addition, he receives regular invitations to be keynote speaker at international conferences and to serve as Conference Director for conferences on documentary films. 

The Selection Committee finds Professor Aitken’s innovative research work and tireless efforts in opening up new research areas truly commendable and recommends him for the President’s Award for Outstanding Performance in Scholarly Work.