FromPlant Press, Vol. 5, No. 2 from July 2002.
P. Barry Tomlinson of Harvard University received the Cuatrecasas Medal at the 2nd Annual Smithsonian Botanical Symposium. The medal is in honor of José Cuatrecasas, a pioneering botanist and taxonomist who spent nearly a half-century working in Botany at the Smithsonian Institution. Cuatrecasas’ research, especially in the flowering plant family Asteraceae, was devoted to the classification, biogeography, exploration, and ecology of plants of the paramo and subparamo regions of Andean South America. Out of enduring respect and admiration, the José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany was established. This medal is presented annually to a botanist and scholar of international stature who has contributed significantly to advancing the field of tropical botany. The award serves to keep vibrant the accomplishments and memory of this outstanding scientist.
The recipient of the Cuatrecasas Medal is selected by a committee made up of botanists on the staff at the National Museum of Natural History, in consultation with other local plant scientists in the Washington area. This year the Committee was composed of Laurence Dorr (Chair), Pedro Acevedo, Alan Wittemore, and Pat Herendeen. Nominations for the Medal are accepted from all scientists in Botany at the Museum. The award consists of a bronze medal bearing an image of José Cuatrecasas on the front with the recipient’s name and date of presentation on the back.
The selection committee was impressed by the many important contributions that Tomlinson has made to tropical botany over his long and distinguished career. Tomlinson was born in 1932 in Leeds, England where he received both his undergraduate and graduate training at the university there in conjunction with work at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. He has held positions since that time at the University of Malaya, Singapore Botanic Gardens, the University of the Gold Coast in Ghana, West Africa and at Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami. Currently he is the E. C. Jeffrey Professor of Biology at Harvard University.
The publication of his wonderful books on the biology of tropical trees, the anatomy of monocotyledons, and the botany of mangroves, and his numerous papers on anatomy, morphology, and tropical botany are among the many achievements that led the committee to unanimously conclude that Tomlinson is the scientist most deserving of receiving this year’s Cuatrecasas Medal. Perhaps most important is his commitment to teaching students about the tropics. Many attendees at the Botanical Symposium had been trained by Barry Tomlinson in his courses at FairchildGarden and in Costa Rica. “The real pleasure of my professional development,” said Tomlinson in a written statement, “has been the regular opportunity to show students that botanical conundrums are best elucidated if one learns to ‘ask the plant.’” He added, “In this sense I believe I pass on a message well understood by botanists of the stature of José Cuatrecasas and it is in this spirit that I perceive the great honor you bestow on me.”
Unfortunately Tomlinson was not able to be present at the Botanical Symposium to receive the medal. Dennis Stevenson from the New York Botanical Garden accepted the medal on Tomlinson’s behalf.
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