SHNH Stearn Essay Prize Winner 2025

The Council of the Society for the History of Natural History is delighted to announce that the winner of the William T. Stearn Student Essay Prize, 2025, is Muhammad Ali Ozain for his essay: ‘The taxonomy of faith: gardens, flora, and the Islamicate imagination in Mughal India’. Ali is currently reading BA (Hons) History, Politics and Economics at University College London and specialising in History.

Judges agreed that this was a well-written and nicely-argued essay which offers a close reading of Mughal gardens in the 16th to 18th centuries. Drawing on memoirs, horticultural treatises and illustrated manuscripts, the author shows how these gardens blended religious symbolism with practical knowledge, contributing to understandings of plant cultivation and plant taxonomy.

In writing about the award Ali says: ‘I am honoured and delighted to receive the William T. Stearn Student Essay Prize for my paper on how Mughal gardens were not only aesthetic expressions of paradise but also living archives of taxonomy and theology. In an era when the process of decolonisation is reshaping how we write global histories, I believe it is vital to foreground these parallel traditions of natural history on their own terms. It is both humbling and inspiring to have this work recognised by the Society for the History of Natural History, and I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to a field that continues to expand its horizons.’

The William T. Stearn Student Essay Award was instituted to commemorate the work of William T. Stearn (1911–2001), a scholar whose work contributed much to the field and to this Society. The prize is awarded to the best original, unpublished essay in the history of natural history by an undergraduate or postgraduate student or to a postdoctoral student within two years of the award of their doctorate.

We send our warmest congratulations to Ali.

SHNH Stearn Essay Prize Winners 2023-2024

SHNH Stearn Essay Prize Winners 2019-2022

Professor William T. Stearn CBE FLS VMH

William T. Stearn, CBE FLS VMH, was an outstanding botanical scholar, deemed the complete naturalist and was described in his obituary in The Times as “the greatest botanical authority of the twentieth century”.  Born in Chesterton, Cambridge, he developed an early interest in books and natural history.  He worked at the British Museum (Natural History) from 1953–1976, retiring as a Senior Principal Scientific Officer. After his retirement, he continued working there, writing, and serving on a number of professional bodies related to his work, including the Linnean Society of London, of which he became president. He also taught botany at Cambridge University as a visiting professor (1977–1983).

Professor Stearn is known for his work in botanical taxonomy and botanical history, particularly classical botanical literature, botanical illustration and for his studies of the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus. His best known books are his “Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners”, a popular guide to the scientific names of plants, and his “Botanical Latin” for scientists and he is the the botanical authority for over 400 plant species. William Stearn received many honours for his work, at home and abroad, and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1997. He received the Linnean Gold Medal of The Linnean Society of London (1976), and the Society for the History of Natural History’s Founders’ Medal (1986).

The SHNH Stearn Student Essay Prize was established in Professor Stearn’s honour by the Society for the History of Natural History and Mia Uys (2023) is the fifteenth winner of the prize.