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Society for the History of Natural History


Awards, Honours and Medals

SHNH Founders' Medal


The SHNH Founders’ Medal 2024

SHNH Founders’ Medal

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 2024.

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 June 2024.

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 10 January 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 2024

The Society is very pleased to announce that our prestigious Founders’ Medal will this year be awarded to Professor Kristin Johnson, Professor and Director of Science, Technology, Health and Society at the University of Puget Sound, Washington, USA.

Kristin Johnson has contributed enormously to the history of natural history and the naturalist tradition in North America, particularly by exploring the actual practice of naturalists in the field and museum. Her publications include the wonderful book Ordering Life: Karl Jordan and the Naturalist Tradition (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012), which explores the life of the German entomologist Karl Jordan, who spent much of his life working at Walter Rothschild’s museum at Tring in the UK. She has also published widely on a range of natural history topics, including the role of type-specimens in nineteenth century taxonomy, the science and religion debates in America, the making of the journal, The Ibis, and a not-to-be missed article on why natural history was once derided as stamp collecting. Unusually, Kristin also engages with creative non-fiction. Her historical novel The Species Maker, is a fictional exploration of debates over evolution in the 1920s (University of Alabama Press, 2021).

Kristin took her PhD at Oregon State University in 2003. As a professor at the University of Puget Sound, Washington since 2006, she teaches the history of biology and associated subjects such as evolution and ethics. She was involved for many years in the annual meeting of historians of natural history at Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands and will be remembered and admired by decades of attendees. The Founders’ Medal of the Society for the History of Natural History goes to a scholar with wide ranging historical knowledge who loves the field, and its participants, and delights in bringing the subject alive.

Kristin said: ‘Well this was quite a surprise! As someone who teaches at a teaching-intensive, small liberal arts college while trying to maintain a research program, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this honour.’

 

The SHNH Founders’ Medal 2021 – 2023

Geoffrey Moore SHNH Founders’ Medal 2023

 

Theodore W. Pietsch SHNH Founders’ Medal 2022

Robert McCracken Peck SHNH Founders’ Medal 2021

Geoffrey Hancock SHNH Founders’ Medal 2021

 

Professor Tim Birkhead Founders’ Medal 2016

Recipients of the Founders’ Medal

  • 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

  • Professor Janet Browne
    Founders’ Medal 2003

    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

  • Sir David Attenborough Founder’s Medal 2011

    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