Revision of Awards and medals named after Wallace from Mon, 2014-12-01 08:27

By George Beccaloni

  1. The Darwin-Wallace Medal of the Linnean Society of London was designed by Frank Bowcher in 1906. It was awarded on 1st July of 1908 and again in 1958 to commemorate the 50th and 100th anniversaries of the reading of the Darwin and Wallace papers proposing natural selection. The Medal has a profile of Darwin on the obverse and a full-face image of Wallace on the reverse, with the marginal inscription "LINN. SOC. LOND. 1858 - 1908" on both sides.  Wallace was the first recipient of this medal (the only gold example ever made) on the 50th anniversary and the speech he gave on accepting it can be read here. Unfortunately the medal was not awarded on the 150th anniversary of the reading of the papers on 1st July 2008, as the Linnean Society decided to break the tradition and instead award the medal on Darwin's birthday, 12th February 2009. From 2009 the Society will award the medal annually in May.
  2. In early 2005 the first "Alfred Russel Wallace Award" was given out by the International Biogeography Society (IBS) at its second biennial meeting; the award is given for individual lifetime achievement in the field of biogeography.
  3. The "Alfred Russel Wallace Award" is a biological honor society award given at Kansas Wesleyan University (where Wallace gave a lecture in 1887) in Salina, USA.
  4. The "A. R. Wallace Prize" is a Dept. of Biological Sciences award given at Monash University in Australia
  5. The "Wallace Prize" is awarded annually by the Board of Undergraduate Studies at the National University of Singapore to assist the recipient in the purchase of books. It was created in 1959 - see http://www.nus.edu.sg/registrar/edu/awards/rulesofaward-w.html
  6. The "Alfred Russel Wallace Award in Resource Ecology" is given out for the year's best M.Sc. thesis at Wageningen University in The Netherlands
  7. The "Wallace Award" is given by the Royal Entomological Society, UK annually for postgraduate work leading to a Ph.D degree awarded in the UK, with no age limit. Heads of Departments are invited to nominate postgraduate students who have been awarded their PhD during the academic year and whose work they considered to be truly outstanding. The research involved should be a major contribution to the science of entomology. The assessment will be based on the candidate's thesis, plus a one-page submission from the candidate explaining in layman's language how his or her work has "moved entomological science forward".
  8. Alfred Russel Wallace Grants for Outstanding Field Ecologists are awarded by Operation Wallacea annually to UK and US undergraduates looking to join one of their field projects. For more information click HERE.
Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith