Dear Members,
We would like to draw your attention to the article that was recently published in the June issue (160) of the Bryological Times proposing a new award named for a prominent female bryologist.
If you would like to nominate another person, or make other suggestions for what the award should recognise and whether or not it should have a monetary value, please respond directly to: Christine.Cargill@csiro.au
We will accept responses until the 15th September. After that date we will send out an email to invite members to vote on the name of the new award.
Thank you for your support.
Regards
Chris Cargill & Pina Milne
New Award for IAB Named after a Prominent Female Bryologist
D. Christine Cargill & Josephine Milne
One of the aims of the International Association of Bryologists (IAB) is to ‘promote international co-operation and communication among persons interested in bryophytes’. One way to achieve this is to ensure representation of the Society’s diverse membership. First as an elected IAB Council member and then as the 2nd Vice President, Christine Cargill (first author) initiated a project to raise the profile of women bryologists. This project was a collaboration with Fijian bryologist Mereia Tabua (former The Bryological Times editor, and past Council member) and Australian bryologist Josephine (Pina) Milne (second author) (retired Collections Manager, National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, and now an Honorary Associate).
Many women have contributed significantly to the field of bryology over the last 200 years or so, but how many IAB members today know of those early women bryologists and their achievements? We only recently discovered through the British Bryological Society website that ‘Ireland’s first female botanist’, Ellen Hutchins, was a cryptogamist collecting and publishing on seaweeds, lichens and bryophytes in the early 1800s. Two liverworts and a moss are named for her and there is even an annual festival held in her honour! For more information, see:
https://www.britishbryologicalsociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ELLEN-HUTCHINS.pdf
The aim of the Women in Bryology project is to raise the profiles of living female bryologists from around the world. We wanted to make the bryological and botanical community aware of the past and current contributions by these women, no matter how large or small. We also wanted to explore why they came to bryology or in some cases why they had to abandon the field.
The original reason for initiating this project was because we wanted to see a better gender balance within the Association. When we looked at the history of recipients of the various awards given by the IAB (https://bryology.org/get_involved/awards-grants/) we found that most awards have gone to male bryologists.
The Women in Bryology project has been very successful, with 90 women from across the world having contributed to date. But we wanted to build on this momentum and continue to improve the society’s gender balance, so why not institute an award named for a prominent female bryologist?
All current awards and grants offered by the IAB, bar one which is not eponymous, are named for a prominent male bryologist, e.g. the Hedwig Medal, the Richard Spruce Award, etc. Also, when looking at other cryptogamic societies and associations, we are lagging somewhat behind in recognising a female scientist in naming our awards:
https://ial-lichenology.org/awards/
https://intphycsociety.org/Grants-and-Awards
https://protistologists.org/programs/awards/
Given the important contributions that women have made to our field throughout the history of bryology, we are proposing to create through the IAB an additional award named for a prominent female bryologist.
When considering the naming of the award, rather than having a top-down decision made by the IAB Executive Committee or the IAB Council, we would like the whole of the IAB membership to have the opportunity to nominate a prominent woman in bryology. We are thus calling for nominations from the membership, which should include a short summary about the main achievements of the nominee and the field of bryology to which she has made a significant contribution.
All nominations will be considered, and the Council will compose a shortlist of nominees to be included in a ballot for the vote by Council members.
As a starting point, a call out was made to all members of the IAB Council to put forward their nominations. These are listed below with a short biography given here including a link provided to a comprehensive online biography of the nominee:
1. Ellen Hutchins (1785–1815) (Ireland). Ellen Hutchins, educated in Dublin, was Ireland’s first female botanist. She focused on collecting cryptogams, in particular algae and bryophytes in and around Bantry Bay, West Cork. Unfortunately, Ellen died young at the age of 29 years. Jungermannia (Jubula) hutchinsiae is one liverwort named in her honour. https://www.ellenhutchins.com/
2. Nancy Slack (1930–2022) (USA). Nancy Slack graduated from Cornell University with BSc (1952) and received her PhD (1971) in ecology from the University at Albany SUNY for her thesis, ‘Species Diversity and Community Structure in Bryophytes’. She completed research and published widely on bryophytes, the ecology of peatlands, ecological niche theory, and the history of ecology and botany. With her collaborator Dale Vitt, “she published the first North American study of the ecology of mosses in fens, and went on to publish more than 20 articles on bryophyte ecology in peer-reviewed journals, and co-edit the book Bryophyte Ecology and Climate Change (2011)” (Margaret (Mari) Eggers, Evansia 40 (1): 37). Nancy also loved teaching and mentoring students. After her PhD she secured a faculty position at Russell Sage College (RSC), where she taught for more than 30 years. https://bryology.org/women-in-bryology/past-women-in-bryology/
3. Karen Renzaglia (1953–) (USA). Karen Sue Renzaglia holds a MSc (1977) and PhD degree (1981) in Plant Biology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC), USA. For her degrees she studied the development and morphology of hornworts and liverworts, becoming a leading expert in the field. Karen began her professional career as an assistant professor (1980) at East Tennessee State University, becoming an associate professor in 1985 and served in that position until 1997. In the early 1980s, Karen spent time at Queen Mary College in London, England working with Jeffrey G. Duckett. In 1996, Karen returned to SIUC as visiting professor and was appointed as an assistant professor of Plant Biology in 2005. Karen continues innovative work on ultrastructure, morphology and development of tissues and organs of seed and seed-free plants, especially sperm cells, sporogenesis, plant cytoskeleton and evolution of key phylogenetic groups, such as the hornworts. With over 150 publications, Karen has a global recognition with a large number of students trained and collaborations worldwide. Currently, Karen is emeritus faculty in the department of Plant Biology (SIUC) and previously held the position of Dean of Undergraduate studies.
4. Janice Glime (1941–) (USA). Janice Glime received her PhD (1968) from Michigan State University. The title of her dissertation was ‘Aquatic Insect Communities Among Appalachian Stream Bryophytes’. Janice is currently Professor Emerita at Michigan Technological University. She is well-known for her work on the aquatic moss Fontinalis, management of Bryonet, an invaluable international email discussion forum, and for her Ebook Bryophyte Ecology with free access on the internet. In 2013. Janice received the IAB Hattori Award for her book. https://www.biotaxa.org/dbe/article/view/bde.39.1.3 and https://bryology.org/janice-glime/
5. Suzanne Jovet-Ast (1914–2006) (France). Suzanne Jovet-Ast devoted her life to botany and especially to bryology. In 1941, she joined the Laboratoire de Cryptogamie ([PC], Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris) as an “assistant”, and finished her career as the director of this laboratory (1975–1982). Retiring in 1982, she continued working until her death. Interested in taxonomy and biogeography, she was a specialist in the liverwort genus Riccia. https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/sites/default/files/articles/pdf/cryptogamie-bryologie2007v28f2a6.pdf
6. Helen Hewson (1938 – 2007) (Australia). The PhD studies of Helen Hewson focused on the liverwort family Aneuraceae. Helen was a botanist, scientific editor and botanical artist. Several bryophytes are named in her honour: Jungermannia hewsoniae Amakawa & Grolle, Plagiochila hewsoniana Inoue & Grolle, and Fossombronia hewsoniae G.A.M.Scott & D.C.Pike. https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/hewson-helen.html
7. Sarie Perold (1928-2011) (South Africa). Sarie Perold embarked on a career in bryology late in life at the age of 51 but made up for lost time by completing her PhD in 1991 on the Ricciaceae in southern Africa later becoming known as a world-renowned expert in the group and in thalloid liverworts and the Fossombroniaceae in this region. By 1999 she had published the landmark Facscicle 1 Marchantiidae for the Flora of Southern Africa which included descriptions, illustrations, images and maps for 78 species of thalloid liverworts. She served from 2000-2005 on the IAPT permanent committee for bryophytes and was a member of the IAB. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1179/1743282012Y.0000000035
8. Elizabeth Gertrude Britton (1858-1934) (USA). Elizabeth Britton was a bryologist, educator, and one of the founding members of the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). She was the curator of mosses for the Torrey Botanical Club (1884-1885) and in 1912 became Honorary Curator of Mosses at NYBG. She published 346 papers, 170 of which were on mosses. She was one of the foremost authorities in bryology of her time. https://www.nybg.org/library/finding_guide/archv/E_G_Brittonb.html
9. Margaret Hannah Fulford (1904–1999) (USA). Margaret Fulford was an internationally renowned botanist and recognized as a worldwide authority on bryology in particular on the liverworts. Fulford obtained three degrees in education, botany and a master’s also in botany at the University of Cincinnati. She went onto to her earn her PhD at Yale University under the mentorship of the well-known bryologist Dr Alexander W. Evans. Her 4-volume ‘Manual of the Leafy Hepaticae of Latin America’ still remains an important reference. Not only was her contribution to research considerable and significant, but she also was the curator of the ABLS herbarium, created and published the “Recent Literature on hepatics and mosses” in The Bryologist, was on the nomenclature committee for bryophytes, associate editor of the The Bryologist and mentored many students, including Ray and Barbara Stotler. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3243090 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hannah_Fulford
10. Barbara Crandall-Stotler (1942-) (USA). Under the mentorship and guidance of hepaticologist Dr Magaret Fulford, at the University of Cincinnati, Barbara earned both an MSc and a PhD in botany within a four-year period. Her graduate studies of comparative liverwort ontogenies culminated in the comprehensive work “Morphology and development of branches in the leafy Hepaticae” (Crandall 1969), which is a landmark publication. But it is in partnership with her late husband Dr Raymond Stotler that she is best known for their publications focusing on the elucidation of relationships within and among liverwort and hornwort taxa to clarify phylogenetic positions. http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1639/0007-2745-114.1.1
We are also calling for suggestions for what the award will recognise, such as career excellence and/or a significant achievement in the field of bryology. Some thoughts are listed below:
- Best PhD in bryology for the past year.
- Actions and activities to promote bryophyte collections and/or botanical conservation
- Bryophyte developmental biology
- Bryophyte evolutionary biology, including phylogenomics, evo-devo, evolutionary ecology
- Mentoring award: effective training of the next generation of bryologists including non-professionals.
- Recognising public outreach in bryology
We would also value your opinions as to whether the award should have a monetary value. We recognise that this could be the more difficult part of the award – raising funds which will be available in perpetuity. If IAB obtains non-profit status, this award could be funded through member donations when renewing their subscriptions each year. Please send your suggestions of:
* who the award should be named for,
* what achievement the award should recognise,
* and/or what the recipient should be awarded to Christine Cargill at: christine.cargill@csiro.au