The John C. Marsden Medal

£1,000 and a medal awarded for the best doctoral thesis in biology covering areas other than botany (algae, fungi or plants).

Dr John C. Marsden was the Executive Secretary of the Society from 1989 to 2004 and was elected as a Fellow honoris causa in 2005 in recognition of his services to the Society. The medal is awarded annually in Dr John C. Marsden's memory and is open to any candidate whose research has been carried out whilst registered at a UK institution. Nominations are received from the Head of Department or the supervisor of the candidate.

The next round of nominations for this award will open in May 2025.

Dr Jamie C. Weir

'It is a tremendous honour to receive the John C. Marsden Medal and have my work recognised by the Linnean Society. I first joined the Society at 18, fascinated by its long history stretching back to Darwin, Wallace, and the origins of biology as a science. It is a privilege to represent the University of Edinburgh and become a small part of that prestigious lineage.'

This year’s John C. Marsden Medal is awarded to Dr Jamie C. Weir for the thesis ‘Buffering and trophic mismatch in spring-feeding forest caterpillars’. Jamie’s work considers a fundamental question facing ecology: how resilient are organisms to a warming climate? Focusing on woodland food-webs in spring, Jamie combined a re-appraisal of neglected, historical literature with an extremely ambitious set of experiments, captive-rearing thousands of caterpillars. Surprisingly, he found evidence suggesting that an array of ‘buffering’ mechanisms—such as bet-hedging strategies, or feeding on a wide range of plant species—might actually ameliorate some of the disruptive impacts of increasing temperatures.