The Linnean Medal of the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...

was established in 1888, and is awarded annually to alternately a botanist or a zoologist or (as has been common since 1958) to one of each in the same year. The medal was of gold until 1976, and is for the preceding years often referred to as "the Gold Medal of the Linnean Society", not to be confused with the official Linnean Gold Medal which is seldom awarded. The engraver of the medal was Charles Anderson Ferrier of Dundee, a Fellow of the Linnean Society from 1882. On the obverse of the medal is the head of Linnaeus in profile and the words "Carolus Linnaeus", on the reverse are the arms of the society and the legend ''"Societas Linnaeana optime merenti"''; an oval space is reserved for the recipient's name.Gage A.T. and Stearn W.T. (1988) ''A Bicentenary History of the Linnean Society of London'', Linnean Society of London, p. 80

Linnean medallists

19th century

*1888: Sir Joseph D. Hooker and

Sir Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. ...

*1889: Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyrame de Candolle *1890:

Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist who specialized in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The stor ...

*1891: Jean-Baptiste Édouard Bornet *1892:

Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was an English naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection; his 1858 pap ...

*1893: Daniel Oliver *1894:

Ernst Haeckel Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; ; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, natural history, naturalist, eugenics, eugenicist, Philosophy, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biology, marine biologist and artist ...

*1895: Ferdinand Julius Cohn *1896:

George James Allman George James Allman Fellow of the Royal Society of London, FRS Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, FRSE (181224 November 1898) was an Irish ecologist, botanist and zoologist who served as Emeritus Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh ...

*1897: Jacob Georg Agardh *1898: George Charles Wallich *1899:

John Gilbert Baker John Gilbert Baker (13 January 1834 – 16 August 1920) was an England, English botanist. His son was the botanist Edmund Gilbert Baker (1864–1949). Biography Baker was born in Guisborough in North Yorkshire, the son of John and Mary (née ...

*1900:

Alfred Newton Alfred Newton Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS HFRSE (11 June 18297 June 1907) was an England, English zoologist and ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Among his numerous public ...

20th century

*1901: Sir George King *1902: Albert von Kölliker *1903:

Mordecai Cubitt Cooke Mordecai Cubitt Cooke (12 July 1825, in Horning, Norfolk – 12 November 1914, in Southsea, Hampshire) was an English botanist and mycologist who was, at various points, a London schoolteacher, a Kew mycologist, curator at the India Museum, jour ...

*1904: Albert C. L. G. Günther *1905: Eduard Strasburger *1906: Alfred Merle Norman *1907: Melchior Treub *1908: Thomas Roscoe Rede Stebbing *1909: Frederick Orpen Bower *1910:

Georg Ossian Sars Prof Georg Ossian Sars HFRSE (20 April 1837 – 9 April 1927) was a Norway, Norwegian marine biology, marine and freshwater biology, freshwater biologist. Life Georg Ossian Sars was born on 20 April 1837 in Kinn (former municipality), Kinn, No ...

*1911: Hermann Graf zu Solms-Laubach *1912: Robert Cyril Layton Perkins *1913:

Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with ...

*1914: Otto Butschli *1915: Joseph Henry Maiden *1916: Frank Evers Beddard *1917: Henry Brougham Guppy *1918:

Frederick DuCane Godman Frederick DuCane Godman (15 January 1834 – 19 February 1919) was an English lepidopterist, entomology, entomologist and ornithology, ornithologist. He was one of the twenty founding members of the British Ornithologists' Union. Along with Osb ...

*1919: Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour *1920: Sir Edwin Ray Lankester *1921: Dukinfield Henry Scott *1922: Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton *1923:

Thomas Frederic Cheeseman Thomas Frederick Cheeseman (8 June 184515 October 1923) was a New Zealand botanist. He was also a naturalist who had wide-ranging interests, such that he even described a few species of sea slugs (marine gastropod molluscs). Biography Che ...

*1924: William Carmichael McIntosh *1925: Francis Wall Oliver *1926: Edgar Johnson Allen *1927: Otto Stapf *1928:

Edmund Beecher Wilson Edmund Beecher Wilson (October 19, 1856 – March 3, 1939) was a pioneering American zoologist and geneticist. He wrote one of the most influential textbooks in modern biology, ''The Cell''. He discovered the chromosomal XY sex-determination s ...

*1929:

Hugo de Vries Hugo Marie de Vries (; 16 February 1848 – 21 May 1935) was a Dutch botanist and one of the first geneticists. He is known chiefly for suggesting the concept of genes, rediscovering the laws of heredity in the 1890s while apparently unaware of ...

*1930: James Peter Hill *1931: Karl Ritter von Goebel *1932: Edwin Stephen Goodrich *1933: Robert Hippolyte Chodat *1934: Sir Sidney Frederic Harmer *1935: Sir David Prain *1936: John Stanley Gardiner *1937: Frederick Frost Blackman *1938: Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson *1939:

Elmer Drew Merrill Elmer Drew Merrill (October 15, 1876 – February 25, 1956) was an American botanist and taxonomist. He spent more than twenty years in the Philippines where he became a recognized authority on the flora of the Asia-Pacific region. Through ...

*1940: Sir Arthur Smith Woodward *1941: Sir Arthur George Tansley *1942: Award suspended *1946:

William Thomas Calman William Thomas Calman (29 December 1871 – 29 September 1952) was a Scottish zoologist, specialising in the Crustacea. From 1927 to 1936 he was Keeper of Zoology at the British Museum (Natural History) (now the Natural History Museum). Life ...

and Frederick Ernest Weiss *1947: Maurice Jules Gaston Corneille Caullery *1948:

Agnes Arber Agnes Arber Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS ( Robertson; 23 February 1879 – 22 March 1960) was a British people, British plant morphology, plant morphologist and plant anatomy, anatomist, History of botany, historian of botany and philosophe ...

*1949: D. M. S. Watson *1950:

Henry Nicholas Ridley Henry Nicholas Ridley CMG (1911), MA (Oxon), FRS, FLS, F.R.H.S. (10 December 1855 – 24 October 1956) was an English botanist, geologist and naturalist who lived much of his life in Singapore. He was instrumental in promoting rubber trees i ...

*1951: Theodor Mortensen *1952: Isaac Henry Burkill *1953: Patrick Alfred Buxton *1954: Felix Eugene Fritsch *1955: Sir John Graham Kerr *1956: William Henry Lang *1957:

Erik Stensiö Prof Erik Helge Osvald Stensiö HFRSE (2 October 1891 – 11 January 1984), né Andersson, was an influential Swedish paleozoologist and founder of the so-called "Stockholm School" of vertebrate paleontology. He later took his new surnam ...

*1958: Sir Gavin de Beer and

William Bertram Turrill William Bertram Turrill Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS Order of the British Empire, OBE Fellow of the Linnean Society, FLS (14 June 1890 – 15 December 1961) was an English botanist. Education He was born in Woodstock, Oxfordshire to William ...

*1959: H. M. Fox and Carl Skottsberg *1960: Libbie H. Hyman and Hugh Hamshaw Thomas *1961: and F. S. Russle '' ic' *1962: Norman L. Bor and Guillermo Kuschel *1963: Sidnie M. Manton and William H. Pearsall *1964: Richard E. Holttum and Carl Frederick Abel Pantin *1965: John Hutchinson and John Ramsbottom *1966: George Stuart Carter and Sir Harry Godwin *1967: Charles Sutherland Elton and Charles E. Hubbard *1968: and T. M. Harris *1969: Irene Manton and

Ethelwynn Trewavas Ethelwynn Trewavas (5 November 1900 – 16 August 1993) was an ichthyologist at the British Museum of Natural History. She was known for her work on the families Cichlidae and Sciaenidae. She worked with Charles Tate Regan, another ichthy ...

*1970: E. J. H. Corner and Errol I. White *1971: Charles Russell Metcalfe and James Edward Smith *1972:

Arthur Roy Clapham Arthur Roy Clapham (24 May 1904 – 18 December 1990), was a British botanist. Born in Norwich and educated at Downing College, Cambridge, Clapham worked at Rothamsted Experimental Station as a crop physiologist (1928–30), and then took a tea ...

and Alfred Romer *1973: G. Ledyard Stebbins and John.Z.Young *1974: E. H. W. Hennig and Josias Braun-Blanquet *1975: A. S. Watt and Philip M Sheppard *1976: William Thomas Stearn *1977:

Ernst Mayr Ernst Walter Mayr ( ; ; 5 July 1904 – 3 February 2005) was a German-American evolutionary biologist. He was also a renowned Taxonomy (biology), taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, Philosophy of biology, philosopher of biology, and ...

and Thomas G. Tutin *1978: and Thomas Stanley Westoll *1979: Robert McNeill Alexander and P. W. Richards *1980: Geoffrey Clough Ainsworth and

Roy Crowson Roy Albert Crowson (22 November 1914 in Hadlow, Kent – 13 May 1999) was an English biologist who specialised in the Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of beetles. He was curator at the Tunbridge Wells Museum, and then lectured at the Zoology Departm ...

*1981: Brian Laurence Burtt and Sir Cyril Astley Clarke *1982: Peter Hadland Davis and Peter H. Greenwood *1983: Cecil T. Ingold and Michael J. D. White *1984: John G. Hawkes and J. S. Kennedy *1985: Arthur Cain and Jeffrey B. Harborne *1986: Arthur Cronquist and Percy C. C. Garnham *1987: Geoffrey Fryer and V. H. Heywood *1988: John L. Harley and Sir Richard Southwood *1989: William Donald Hamilton and Sir David Smith *1990: Sir Ghillean Tolmie Prance and F. Gwendolen Rees *1991: William Gilbert Chaloner and R. M. May *1992:

Richard Evans Schultes Richard Evans Schultes (''SHULL-tees'';Jonathan Kandell ''The New York Times'', April 13, 2001, Accessed April 26, 2020. January 12, 1915 – April 10, 2001) was an American biologist, considered to be the father of modern ethnobotany. He is kno ...

and

Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould ( ; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American Paleontology, paleontologist, Evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, and History of science, historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely re ...

*1993: Barbara Pickersgill and Lincoln Brower *1994: and Sir Alec John Jeffreys *1995: S. M. Walters and

John Maynard Smith John Maynard Smith (6 January 1920 – 19 April 2004) was a British mathematical and theoretical biology, theoretical and mathematical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he ...

*1996: Jack Heslop-Harrison and Keith Vickerman *1997: Enrico S. Coen and Rosemary Helen Lowe-McConnell *1998: Mark W. Chase and C. Patterson *1999: Philip Barry Tomlinson and Quentin Bone *2000: Bernard Verdcourt and Michael F. Claridge

21st century

*2001: Chris Humphries and *2002: Sherwin Carlquist and *2003: Pieter Baas and Bryan Campbell Clarke *2004: Geoffrey Allen Boxshall and John Dransfield *2005: Paula Rudall and *2006:

David Mabberley Professor David John Mabberley , (born May 1948) is a British botanist, educator and writer. Among his varied scientific interests is the taxonomy of tropical plants, especially trees of the families Labiatae, Meliaceae and Rutaceae (in parti ...

and Richard A. Fortey *2007: and

Thomas Cavalier-Smith Thomas (Tom) Cavalier-Smith, FRS, FRSC, NERC Professorial Fellow (21 October 1942 – 19 March 2021), was a professor of evolutionary biology in the Department of Zoology, at the University of Oxford. His research has led to discov ...

*2008: and Stephen Donovan *2009: Peter Shaw Ashton and Michael Akam *2010: Dianne Edwards and Derek Yalden *2011: Brian J. Coppins and H. Charles Godfray *2012: Stephen Blackmore and Peter Holland *2013: Kingsley Wayne Dixon *2014: and *2015: Engkik Soepadmo, , and Rosmarie Honegger *2016: Sandra Knapp and Georgina Mace *2017: and *2018: Kamaljit S Bawa, , and Sophien Kamoun *2019:

Vicki Funk Vicki Ann Funk (November 26, 1947 – October 22, 2019) was an American botanist and curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, known for her work on members of the composite family (Asteraceae) including collecting plants ...

and *2020: Ben Sheldon and *2021:

Mary Jane West-Eberhard Mary Jane West-Eberhard (born 1941) is an American theoretical biologist noted for arguing that phenotypic and developmental plasticity played a key role in shaping animal evolution and speciation. She is also an entomologist notable for her wor ...

and *2022:

Rohan Pethiyagoda Rohan David Pethiyagoda is a Sri Lankan biodiversity scientist, amphibian and freshwater-fish taxonomist, author, conservationist and public-policy advocate. Early life and career Born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 19 November 1955 Pethiyagoda ha ...

and Sebsebe Demissew *2023: Sandra Diaz *2024:

Paul Upchurch Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

*2025: David Macdonald

References

{{Carl Linnaeus Biology awards Linnean Society of London British science and technology awards Commemoration of Carl Linnaeus Awards established in 1888 1888 establishments in the United Kingdom

Linnean medallists

19th century

20th century

21st century

See also

References