biology

Linnean Medal

Linnean Medal is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Linnean Medal rather than just read about it. In short: The Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London was established in 1888 (1888), and is awarded annually to alternately a botanist or a zoologist or (as has been common since 1958) to one of each in the same year. The medal was of gold until 1976, and is for the preceding years often referred to as "the Gold Medal of the Linnean Society", not to be confused with the official Linnean Gold Medal which is seldom awar…

Key takeaways

Linnean Medal belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Linnean Medal to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Linnean Medal from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London was established in 1888 (1888), and is awarded annually to alternately a botanist or a zoologist or (as has been common since 1958) to one of each in the same year. The medal was of gold until 1976, and is for the preceding years often referred to as "the Gold Medal of the Linnean Society", not to be confused with the official Linnean Gold Medal which is seldom awarded. The engraver of the medal was Charles Anderson Ferrier of Dundee, a Fellow of the Linnean Society from 1882. On the obverse of the medal is the head of Linnaeus in profile and the words "Carolus Linnaeus", on the reverse are the arms of the society and the legend "Societas Linnaeana optime merenti"; an oval space is reserved for the recipient's name.

Linnean medallists

19th century 1888: Sir Joseph D. Hooker and Sir Richard Owen 1889: Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyrame de Candolle 1890: Thomas Henry Huxley 1891: Jean-Baptiste Édouard Bornet 1892: Alfred Russel Wallace 1893: Daniel Oliver 1894: Ernst Haeckel 1895: Ferdinand Julius Cohn 1896: George James Allman 1897: Jacob Georg Agardh 1898: George Charles Wallich 1899: John Gilbert Baker 1900: Alfred Newton

20th century 1901: Sir George King 1902: Albert von Kölliker 1903: Mordecai Cubitt Cooke 1904: Albert C. L. G. Günther 1905: Eduard Strasburger 1906: Alfred Merle Norman 1907: Melchior Treub 1908: Thomas Roscoe Rede Stebbing 1909: Frederick Orpen Bower 1910: Georg Ossian Sars 1911: Hermann Graf zu Solms-Laubach 1912: Robert Cyril Layton Perkins 1913: Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler 1914: Otto Butschli 1915: Joseph Henry Maiden 1916: Frank Evers Beddard 1917: Henry Brougham Guppy 1918: Frederick DuCane Godman 1919: Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour 1920: Sir Edwin Ray Lankester 1921: Dukinfield Henry Scott 1922: Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton 1923: Thomas Frederic Cheeseman 1924: William Carmichael McIntosh 1925: Francis Wall Oliver 1926: Edgar Johnson Allen 1927: Otto Stapf 1928: Edmund Beecher Wilson 1929: Hugo de Vries 1930: James Peter Hill 1931: Karl Ritter von Goebel 1932: Edwin Stephen Goodrich 1933: Robert Hippolyte Chodat 1934: Sir Sidney Frederic Harmer 1935: Sir David Prain 1936: John Stanley Gardiner 1937: Frederick Frost Blackman 1938: Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson 1939: Elmer Drew Merrill 1940: Sir Arthur Smith Woodward 1941: Sir Arthur George Tansley 1942: Award suspended 1946: William Thomas Calman and Frederick Ernest Weiss 1947: Maurice Jules Gaston Corneille Caullery 1948: Agnes Arber 1949: D. M. S. Watson 1950: Henry Nicholas Ridley 1951: Theodor Mortensen 1952: Isaac Henry Burkill 1953: Patrick Alfred Buxton 1954: Felix Eugene Fritsch 1955: Sir John Graham Kerr 1956: William Henry Lang 1957: Erik Stensiö 1958: Sir Gavin de Beer and William Bertram Turrill 1959: H. M. Fox and Carl Skottsberg 1960: Libbie H. Hyman and Hugh Hamshaw Thomas 1961: Edmund W. Mason and F. S. Russle [sic] 1962: Norman L. Bor and Guillermo Kuschel 1963: Sidnie M. Manton and William H. Pearsall 1964: Richard E. Holttum and Carl Frederick Abel Pantin 1965: John Hutchinson and John Ramsbottom 1966: George Stuart Carter and Sir Harry Godwin 1967: Charles Sutherland Elton and Charles E. Hubbard 1968: A. Gragan and T. M. Harris 1969: Irene Manton and Ethelwynn Trewavas 1970: E. J. H. Corner and Errol I. White 1971: Charles Russell Metcalfe and James Edward Smith 1972: Arthur Roy Clapham and Alfred Romer 1973: G. Ledyard Stebbins and John.Z.Young 1974: E. H. W. Hennig and Josias Braun-Blanquet 1975: A. S. Watt and Philip M Sheppard 1976: William Thomas Stearn 1977: Ernst Mayr and Thomas G. Tutin 1978: Olav K. H. Hedberg and Thomas Stanley Westoll 1979: Robert McNeill Alexander and P. W. Richards 1980: Geoffrey Clough Ainsworth and Roy Crowson 1981: Brian Laurence Burtt and Sir Cyril Astley Clarke 1982: Peter Hadland Davis and Peter H. Greenwood 1983: Cecil T. Ingold and Michael J. D. White 1984: John G. Hawkes and J. S. Kennedy 1985: Arthur Cain and Jeffrey B. Harborne 1986: Arthur Cronquist and Percy C. C. Garnham 1987: Geoffrey Fryer and V. H. Heywood 1988: John L. Harley and Sir Richard Southwood 1989: William Donald Hamilton and Sir David Smith 1990: Sir Ghillean Tolmie Prance and F. Gwendolen Rees 1991: William Gilbert Chaloner and R. M. May 1992: Richard Evans Schultes and Stephen Jay Gould 1993: Barbara Pickersgill and Lincoln Brower 1994: F. E. Round and Sir Alec John Jeffreys 1995: S. M. Walters and John Maynard Smith 1996: Jack Heslop-Harrison and Keith Vickerman 1997: Enrico S. Coen and Rosemary Helen Lowe-McConnell 1998: Mark W. Chase and C. Patterson 1999: Philip Barry Tomlinson and Quentin Bone 2000: Bernard Verdcourt and Michael F. Claridge

21st century 2001: Chris Humphries and Gareth J. Nelson 2002: Sherwin Carlquist and William J. Kennedy 2003: Pieter Baas and Bryan Campbell Clarke 2004: Geoffrey Allen Boxshall and John Dransfield 2005: Paula Rudall and Andrew Smith 2006: David Mabberley and Richard A. Fortey 2007: Phil Cribb and Thomas Cavalier-Smith 2008: Jeffrey Duckett and Stephen Donovan 2009: Peter Shaw Ashton and Michael Akam 2010: Dianne Edwards and Derek Yalden 2011: Brian J. Coppins and H. Charles Godfray 2012: Stephen Blackmore and Peter Holland 2013: Kingsley Wayne Dixon 2014: Niels Peder Kristensen and Hans Walter Lack 2015: Engkik Soepadmo, Claus Nielsen, and Rosmarie Honegger 2016: Sandra Knapp and Georgina Mace 2017: Charlie Jarvis and David Rollinson 2018: Kamaljit S Bawa, Jeremy Holloway, and Sophien Kamoun 2019: Vicki Funk and Samuel T. Turvey 2020: Ben Sheldon and Juliet Brodie 2021: Mary Jane West-Eberhard and Shahina Ghazanfar 2022: Rohan Pethiyagoda and Sebsebe Demissew 2023: Sandra Diaz 2024: Paul Upchurch 2025: David Macdonald

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Linnean Medal

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Linnean Medal claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Linnean Medal before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Linnean Medal ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Linnean Medal

In research: Linnean Medal appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Linnean Medal in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Linnean Medal is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1888 establishments in the United Kingdom, Awards established in 1888, Biology awards, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Linnean Medal outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Linnean Medal in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Linnean Medal means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Linnean Medal out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Linnean Medal in simple terms?

Why does Linnean Medal matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Linnean Medal?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Linnean Medal.