New Zealand Lichen Flora Author Awarded Prestigious Acharius Medal
Dr David Galloway FRSNZ, FLS (Hon. Research Associate, Landcare Research, Dunedin and member of the NZPCN) was recently awarded the Acharius Medal by the International Association for Lichenology, at their sixth, Congress (IAL 6) held this year at Asilomar on the Monterey Peninsula, California. The medal is awarded every 4 years, for “outstanding contributions to lichenology” and is only the second such award to be made to a Southern Hemisphere lichenologist. Dr Galloway, who joins some 25 Acharius Medallists worldwide, has studied lichens of the temperate Southern Hemisphere for the past 45 years, and is the author of Flora of New Zealand Lichens, the revised 2nd edition of which was published last Deecember by Manaaki Whenua Press (Lincoln), both as a 2-volume set and also on-line.The Acharius medal, which is the IAL’s premier award, commemorates the Swedish lichenologist, Erik Acharius (1757-1819). Acharius was educated in Uppsala (he was Linnaeus’s last pupil), Stockholm and Lund where he graduated MD in 1782. In 1789 he was appointed provincial health officer of the Vadstena district and later he became the chief physician of the sanatorim there. It was in Vadstena that he undertook his long and significant researches into systematic lichenology, leading to his segregation of the old collective genus Lichen into more closely defined, smaller, independent genera, thereby laying the foundations of modern lichen taxonomy. Acharius is rightly regarded as the Father of Lichenology. In 1846 a silver medal was struck in his honour by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the die of this medal was discovered in 1992 in the Swedish Mint, who subsequently allowed the IAL use of it for their award. Thirteen foundation Acharius Medals were awarded in 1992 by the IAL at the second IAL Congress (IAL 2) at Hemmesloev, Sweden, and since then a further 16 medals have been awarded, usually at 4-yearly Congresses of the IAL.
Congratulations David!
Posted: 19/09/2008