Thackray medal awarded to two NJB editors

Chris Preston (left) and Philip Oswald (centre) receiving their
medals from Hugh Torrens. Philip is holding a copy of the book
for which they were awarded the Thackray medal.

Philip Oswald has sent me this photo of him and Chris Preston receiving their Thackray medals from Hugh Torrens, the President of the Society for the History of Natural History.

The Thackray medal is awarded for outstanding contributions and significant achievements in the history of biological sciences. Philip and Chris were being honoured for their book, John Ray's Cambridge Catalogue (1660).  We are delighted that their work has been recognised in this way, and that the Ray Society has extended its special offer to BSBI members, who may buy a copy of the book for a reduced price of £45 (normally £75). 

Philip and Chris both sit on BSBI's Publications Committee, and New Journal of Botany (NJB) is fortunate to have Philip as our Latin editor - he checks the Latin descriptions in NJB and provides Latin translations where necessary. 

Chris is a member of the NJB Editorial Board, and has contributed a short article to the NJB Journal of the Month webpage. Click here and scroll down to read what Chris has to say about BSBI's influence on distribution mapping and how the society has spent decades mapping the British and Irish flora. And look out in the August issue of NJB for a paper on 'Biogeographical patterns in the British and Irish flora' - co-authored by Chris and colleagues Mark Hill, Colin Harrower and Trevor Dines, the paper is based on a presentation given at the BSBI/RBGE Mapping Conference last September. 

You can read reviews of Philip and Chris's book here and also here - it was, of course, reviewed for New Journal of Botany! Throughout July, you can view all NJB content free of charge, including our Book Reviews. Or scroll down the Journal of the Month webpage to read a short article by NJB's Book Reviews Editor, John Edmondson. John also sits on both BSBI's Publications Committee and NJB's Editorial Board.