The Linnean Society of London Tercentenary Awards Celebration

Just over a year on from the launch of the Linnaean Tercentenary at the Linnean Society of London, the Rooms of the Society were again filled with the Fellows attending for the presentation of the 3 specially commissioned Tercentenary silver medals to the three persons selected as having made outstanding contributions to the world’s understanding of natural history and the environment.  The President, Professor David Cutler, resplendent in Academic gown and the Society’s chain of office, welcomed Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and invited her to sign a special page for the Roll and Charter of the Society as a new Honorary Member and admitted her as a Member.  She was then asked to present each of the three Tercentenary medals.

The  citation for the first medallist was read by the Treasurer, Prof. G.Ll. Lucas, who pointed out that it was extremely difficulty to encompass the career and achievements of Sir David Attenborough within the available time limitations, but that some indication of his achievements could be gauged by seeing the number of internet hits resulting from a search on his name. This was only exceeded by that for her Royal Highness! Professor Lucas listed television programmes, books and Sir David’s other achievements, inviting the Princess to present the medal to Sir David as one of the world’s outstanding communicators of natural history.  In accepting the medal, Sir David explained that he had always seen the membership of the Linnean Society as a guarantee of excellence when judging the quality of identification sources. He regarded himself as an amateur rather than a scientist and regretted his lack of involvement in natural history at that level. He stated that there was no honour he would treasure more than the present award.

The citation for the second medallist was read by the Vice President, Dr Sandra Knapp. She highlighted first the role of Professor Steve Jones as a writer of accessible books on evolutionary biology, then his role as an educator, both through the media and as a teacher and lastly as a researcher. She concluded by asking  Her Highness to present the medal in recognition of Professor Steve Jones achievements in making evolutionary biology accessible to a wide audience. On accepting the award Dr. Jones thanked the Society and outlined some of the background to his career, reminding us that other famous conchologists included Edgar Allan Poe and Lewis Carroll.

The citation for the third medallist, Prof. E.O. Wilson, was made by the Vice President, Dr. Vaughan Southgate, who reminded the audience of the many honours and awards already presented to Professor Wilson. Professor Wilson’s  childhood interest in the world of ants had grown to encompass a wider understanding of the ecological relationships linking all life on earth  and of the threats now bringing species to extinction as we still struggle to document their existence. The literary excellence of his writings and their wide-ranging content had done much to increase awareness of the fragility of life on earth and the urgent need for action. He gave  particular mention to Professor Wilson’s support for a project he was personally involved with, the creation a new freshwater wetland habitat in the UK . He commended Professor Wilson to her Highness as a deserving recipient of the Tercentenary medal for his outstanding achievement in widening our awareness of the complexity of biodiversity. In replying, Professor Wilson thanked the Society and reviewed some of his present involvements. These included the Encyclopaedia of Life, which would be an open access source,  and his hopes for ways of focussing the attention of world religious  leaders on the concerted need for speedy action to maintain our planet.

The President then invited Her Royal Highness to address the Society. The Princess opened by expressing her concern that so many of the younger generation no longer had any experience of seeing and naming wildflowers or other wildlife though first hand contact with nature. She was delighted to learn of the present role of the Linnean Society of London in provision of worldwide electronic access to the essential tools needed to supporting work in the biological sciences, taxonomy and conservation of biodiversity,  and the full programme of scientific meeting to support this.

She continued by noting the importance of the year 2007 in the Society’s history, as it celebrated the Tercentenary of the birth of Linnaeus, and the initiation of a  number of important projects. These included the provision of digital on-line access to the Linnaean biological collections, access to the digital images of the newly conserved Linnaean correspondence, and an online collaborative library catalogue providing bibliographic and location information on all publications by Linnaeus and his pupils.
The Princess recognised that the completion of these projects, as well as to all earlier legacy publications of the Society, from its  first publication 1791, would enable world-wide access to all these key collections for the first time. This would help promote the communication of scientific ideas and advances and provide critical support to the biological sciences, taxonomy, conservation, and education.

On concluding, Her Royal Highness looked forward to the Society’s  future plans to encourage research in natural history through grants and awards,  to  a strengthening of  its ability to inform Government on science policy and research  and to  increasing public engagement with the natural sciences.

Professor Cutler thanked the Princess and invited all to refreshments in the Library Reading Room, where the original art work for medal was on display.

PICTURES

HRH The Princess Royal signs a specially comissioned page in the Roll and Charter Book on being admitted as an Honorary Member

The Medallists with Linnean Society President, Professor David Cutler.  From left to right: Professor Steve Jones, Professor David Cutler, Sir David Attenborough and Professor Edward O. Wilson