Giulietti Receives 11th Cuatrecasas Medal

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 3, July 2013

The Department of Botany and the United States National Herbarium present this award to a botanist and scholar of international stature who has contributed significantly to advancing the field of tropical botany. The José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany is named in honor of Dr. José Cuatrecasas, a pioneering botanist and taxonomist, who spent nearly a half-century working in the Smithsonian Institution's Department of Botany. Dr. Cuatrecasas devoted his career to plant exploration in tropical South America, and this award serves to keep vibrant the accomplishments and memory of this outstanding scientist.

The winner of this prestigious award is selected by a committee made up of three botanists on staff in the Botany Department in consultation with other plant scientists outside of the Smithsonian. Nominations for the Medal are accepted from all scientists in the Botany Department. 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. Highlights from past presentations to the recipients are available on the Symposium archives website.

Ana Maria Giulietti Harley is the 11^th recipient of the José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany. Giulietti, a Professor of Botany at the Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil, was selected for this honor as she has made many important contributions to tropical Botany through her research, field work, and teaching. She received her bachelor’s degree (1967) from the Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco in Recife, and her master’s (1970) and doctoral (1978) degrees from the Universidade de São Paulo. Her doctoral dissertation was on the genera Eriocaulon and Leiothrix (Eriocaulaceae) in the Serra do Cipo, Minas Gerais state, and she has continued to study and publish on the Eriocaulaceae throughout her career. Giulietti taught botany courses at the Universidade de São Paulo from 1975 to 1996, including undergraduate courses in plant systematics, morphology, anatomy, economic botany, and biodiversity, and graduate courses in flowering plant systematics. In 1996, she moved to the Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana where she has continued to teach and also served as coordinator of Graduate programs in Botany.

Giulietti has long been involved in floristic exploration in Brazil dating back to her undergraduate days and involvement in the Flora de Pernambuco. She has undertaken field work in the Distrito Federal, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Goiás, and Bahía, and has contributed to the Serra do Cipo (Minas Gerais) and the Chapada Diamantina (Bahía) flora projects. Giulietti has held a number of professional society offices, and since 2005 has been a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.

The past recipients of the Cuatrecasas Medal are Rogers McVaugh of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2001); P. Barry Tomlinson of Harvard University (2002); John Beaman of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2003); David Mabberley of the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney (2004); Jerzy Rzedowski and Graciela Calderón de Rzedowski of Instituto de Ecología del Bajío, Michoacán, Mexico (2005); Sherwin Carlquist of Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and Pomona College (2006); Mireya D. Correa A. of the University of Panama and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (2008); Norris H. Williams of the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Florida, Gainesville (2009); Beryl B. Simpson of the University of Texas at Austin (2010); and Walter S. Judd of the University of Florida at Gainesville (2012).