The SHNH Founders’ Medal 2026

The Founders’ Medal is awarded to persons who have made a substantial contribution to the study of the history or bibliography of natural history.

Nominations are now open and should be sent to the Secretary (secretary@shnh.org.uk) by 1 March 2026.

The recipient for the award is chosen by Council and will be presented with the Founders’ Medal at the Society’s Annual General Meeting in 2026.

Guidelines

• Medallists are chosen by the Council of the Society.
• Nominations, which open on 01 September, can only be made by SHNH members.
• Nominations close on 1 March the following year.
• SHNH members and non-members can be nominated for this medal, which is open to nominees based in the UK and internationally.

Nomination

• Nominations must be sent to the Secretary (secretary@shnh.org.uk) and include the following:
• Your name as a nominator and your contact details.
• The nominee’s name and contact details.
• A supporting statement (up to 600 words) describing why the nominee should receive the award.

Selection Criteria

Nominees should satisfy one or more of the following criteria:

• A sustained record of high-quality publications or other outputs in the field of the history of natural history.
• A sustained contribution to dissemination of the history of natural history through practice or curation.

The SHNH Founders’ Medal 2025

The Society is very pleased to announce that our Founders’ Medal will this year be awarded to David J. Mabberley, Director Emeritus, Botanic Gardens of Sydney, Emeritus Professor, University of Leiden, Emeritus Fellow, Wadham College, Oxford, Fellow of the National Botanic Garden of Wales and Chairman of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy’s General Committee for Plant Nomenclature. The Founders’ Medal is awarded for substantial contributions to the study of the history or bibliography of natural history.

David J. Mabberley is a botanist, writer and educator. His researches largely concern the evolution, systematics, ecology, nomenclature and cultural significance of plants, particularly tropical trees, and have always concentrated on those of economic significance – including mahoganies, apples, grapes and, particularly now, citrus – in the light of the devastating disease now threatening the future of the citrus industry. Among a number of international research projects, he is working with Leipzig botanists on a molecular phylogeny of part of the mahogany family; with New Zealand and other botanists on the origin of the cultivated apple, using molecular techniques; and with Spanish botanists on a phylogenetic analysis of plants used by humans. A prolific researcher and world traveller, David has conducted extensive fieldwork across many countries, making significant botanical discoveries and collecting specimens that have contributed to our understanding of plant biodiversity.

He has received numerous accolades for his significant contributions to horticultural science and plant taxonomy, Among the awards he has received are the José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany and the Peter Raven Award (by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists ‘to a plant systematist who has made successful efforts to popularize botany to non-scientists’), both in 2004. In 2006 he was awarded the Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London and, in 2011, the Robert Allerton Award for Excellence in Tropical Botany of the National Tropical Botanical Garden, USA. He is a Corresponding Member, American Society of Plant Taxonomists (since 1999) and Fellow, Indian Botanical Society (since 2015). Notably, in 2016, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of his exceptional service to the field.

David Mabberley served as the President of the Society for the History of Natural History between 1993 and 1996. He was awarded the SHNH Book Prize (John Thackray Medal) in 2018 for his second book on the natural history artist Ferdinand Bauer (1760–1826), Painting by numbers – the life and art of Ferdinand Bauer.

To botanists David Mabberley hardly needs an introduction. His The plant book, first published in 1987 – re-titled Mabberley’s plant-book. A portable dictionary of plants, their classification and uses and now in its fourth edition – has become an essential tome for anyone working in taxonomic botany. Historical data are included in the entries in the Plant-book, but these merely represent a tiny fraction of Mabberley’s accumulated knowledge.

He has produced over three hundred and fifty publications, ranging from plant ecology and systematics to the history of science and botanical illustration. His most recent books include Mabberley’s Plant-book: A Dictionary of Plants, their Classification and Uses (2017); Painting by Numbers: The life and art of Ferdinand Bauer (2017); Sir Joseph Banks’ Florilegium (2017): Botanical treasures from Cook’s First Voyage; Botanical Revelation: European encounters with Australian plants before Darwin (2019) and Citrus: A World History (2024).

Mabberley is has published widely on the history of science and of botanical art. He is pre-eminently the biographer of Robert Brown (1773–1858). His definitive biography, Jupiter Botanicus Robert Brown of the British Museum, published in 1985 (Review in Archives of Natural History 14: 89–94), was applauded by the Society’s then honorary editor, J. H. Price, who remarked cogently that ‘It is impossible for anyone familiar with the carrying out of this form of historical research not to stand in some awe of the sheer quantity of painstaking, often tedious, perusal of background data represented in the final form of work’. (Earlier, Mabberley had contributed an essay ‘Robert Brown of the British museum: some ramifications’ to the Society’s symposium, History in the service of systematics, 1981: pp 101–109). That applies with equal force to the recent The Robert Brown handbook. A guide to the life and work of Robert Brown (1773–1858) Scottish botanist (with David T. Moore) and published in 2022 (reviewed in Archives of Natural History 49: 431–432), a collaborative compendium of historical information. Painstaking research characterizes all Mabberley’s publications in the history of natural history. As noted, he has published numerous books, as sole author and as co-author, about (for example) the natural history artist Ferdinand Bauer, Joseph Banks’s Florilegium’, Arthur Harry Church, and Flora Graeca. With Annette Giesecke (University of Delaware), he was general editor of Bloomsbury’s A cultural history of plants’ (six volumes) published in 2022.

The SHNH recognises his outstanding contribution to the many fields that his interests encompass and his extraordinary research contributions to botany, horticulture and taxonomy and for his significant publication outputs, including natural history, history of science and botanical art in additional to his research interests.

The SHNH Founders’ Medal – Previous Winners

Recipients of the Founders’ Medal

• 2025 Professor David J. Mabberley

• 2024 Professor Kristin Johnson

• 2023 Professor P. Geoffrey Moore

• 2022 Professor Theodore W. Pietsch

• 2021 Mr Robert McCracken Peck & Mr E. Geoffrey Hancock

• 2019 Dr Henry Noltie

• 2018  Professor Kraig Adler

• 2017  Mr Edward Dickinson

• 2016  Professor Tim Birkhead

• 2015  Professor James A. Secord

• 2014  Mr S. Peter Dance

• 2013  Dr E. Charles Nelson

• 2012  Dr Pat Morris

• 2011  Sir David Attenborough OM CH FRS

• 2009  Professor H. Walter Lack (Botany); Professor Hugh Torrens (Geology); and Dr Ray Williams (Zoology)

• 2005  Dr L. C. (Kees) Rookmaaker

• 2003  Professor Janet Browne

• 2001  Dr Gordon C. Sauer

• 2000 Professor Gordon L. Herries Davies

• 1998  Dr David E. Allen

• 1997  Dr Frederick Burkhardt & Ms Nina J. Root

• 1996  Mrs Christine E. Jackson

• 1995  Professor Arthur J. Cain

• 1994  Mr Ray G. C. Desmond

• 1993  Mr Adrian J. Desmond

• 1992  Mr Gavin D. R. Bridson

• 1991  Professor William A. S. Sarjeant

• 1990  Dr Richard S. Cowan

• 1989  Mr Harold B. Carter

• 1988  Professor Martin J. S. Rudwick

• 1986  Professor Joseph Ewan

• Mrs Joan M. Eyles

• Mr Richard B. Freeman

• Mr Francis J. Griffin

• Professor John L. Heller

• Dr Lipke B. Holthuis

• Professor Frans A. Stafleu

• Professor William T. Stearn

• Mr Alwyne Wheeler

• Sir Eric Smith