The Linnean Society’s 2024 Medals and Awards recognise nine outstanding individuals from the worlds of science, the arts and conservation, working to protect the natural world.
Full press release: https://www.linnean.org/news/2024/04/04/linnean-society-announces-2024-medal-and-award-recipients
The 2024 winner of the Irene Manton Prize is Dr Tin Hang (Henry) Hung for his thesis ‘Ecological genomics and adaptation of rosewoods Dalbergia cochinchinensis and D. oliveri for conservation and restoration’. The thesis studies two threatened rosewood species which are illegally exploited for their valuable timber in the Greater Mekong Subregion, becoming the world’s most trafficked wild product between 2005 and 2014. The landscape genomic analysis of this outstanding thesis was one of the very first studies of adaptive genetic variation in tropical endangered tree species. Cutting-edge technologies were used to assemble the genomes and genotype more than 700 trees, predicting their fates under climate change. Henry’s work could have an enormous impact on the conservation of these critically endangered species.
"I am very humbled to receive the Irene Manton Prize for my research on critically endangered rosewoods. Rosewoods have been the world’s most trafficked wild product, but the world has rarely given them the attention they deserve—probably because of ‘plant blindness’. Botany is an ancient discipline with its roots in medicine and agriculture. Yet, it remains vital today to inspire us, offering insights into nature and sustaining our daily lives. Botanists, like Dr Irene Manton who is the inspiration for this prize, have an indispensable role in this changing world and I feel deeply connected with this community. I thank my collaborators and all the people living in the Mekong, who, with their passion for the land and the forests, have inspired my research today. I thank my mentors John MacKay and David Boshier, who are motivational in my academic pursuit. I dedicate this prize to my late grandfather, who always had unfailing support and love for me." Tin Hang (Henry) Hung