Professor Roger Butlin appointed as Biological Journal Interim Editor-in-Chief
Renowned evolutionary biologist Professor Roger Butlin is to take on interim editorship of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society in September 2026
Published on 7th May 2026
The current Editor-in-Chief of the Biological Journal, Dr Karen Sears, will be stepping down in September after her three-year term. In this time, Dr Sears has overseen successful special collections on Mobilising Natural History Collections in the Global South as well as Organismal Resilience in a Rapidly Changing World, which formed a symposium at the Linnean Society in 2025. She has also helped to broaden out the journal’s scope to include ecology papers, and will stay on as an Associate Editor.
The decision to appoint an interim editor was taken by the Council of the Linnean Society following an independent portfolio review of the Society’s four scientific journals. The interim role will involve repositioning the Biological Journal within the portfolio, working closely with the editors of the Society’s other three journals.
Professor Roger Butlin is an evolutionary biologist who has made important contributions to the field, as well as serving as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Heredity and President of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology. Spending much of his career in Sheffield, he has developed our understanding of speciation, including the role of hybridisation, gene flow and sexual selection. His career has also been marked by his commitment to mentorship and contributions to the research community.
He has also been a long-standing Fellow of the Linnean Society, publishing 15 papers in the Biological Journal since 1985, and winning the prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 2015. He has acted as an Associate Editor for our Evolutionary Journal since 2023, Guest editing the special issue ‘Perspectives on Speciation’ and contributing several papers to the journal.
Professor Gail Cardew said of the appointment: “The Biological Journal is our oldest publication, having published Darwin and Wallace’s landmark papers on evolution. We are incredibly grateful to Dr Sears for her stewardship of the journal over the last three years, during which time she has widened the scope, refreshed the Editorial Board and organised a successful symposium at the Linnean Society. Thank you Karen, on behalf of all of us at the Linnean Society.
“We’re delighted Professor Butlin is taking on this role. As a long-standing Fellow based in the UK, Roger will enable us to develop a close integration between the journal, the Society and its Fellowship, and we’re grateful that he’s willing to share his time and expertise to support the Society in this way.”
Professor Roger Butlin said: “The Biological Journal has a special position in the broad field of natural history. It is an honour to be asked to steer its development over the coming years and I look forward to working on this together with the whole publications team at the Linnean Society."
