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Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation

Lawrence Memorial Award

The Lawrence Memorial Award commemorated the life and achievements of Dr. George H. M. Lawrence (1910–1978), founding director of Hunt Institute (1960–1970). From its inception in 1979 to its ending in 2020, the annual (semiannual from 1988 to 2000) award in the amount of $2,000 aided 27 outstanding doctoral candidates with travel costs in support of dissertation research in systematic botany or horticulture or the history of the plant sciences, including literature and exploration. The Lawrence Memorial Fund Award Committee, which included representatives from Hunt Institute, The Hunt Foundation, the Lawrence family and the botanical community, selected recipients from candidates nominated by their major professors. The award was presented at the annual banquet of the Botanical Society of America.

Lawrence Memorial Award Recipients, 1979–2019

When choosing a recipient, the award committee evaluated a candidate's general scholarly promise and the significance of the research proposed. As evidenced by the achievements of the recipients, the award committee has made some excellent choices over the years.

Michael J. Balick (1979)

Ph.D., Harvard University, 1980

Director and Philecology Curator, Institute of Economic Botany, New York Botanical Garden

James M. Affolter (1980)

Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1983

Director of Research, The State Botanical Garden of Georgia; Professor, Department of Horticulture, University of Georgia


Janet R. Sullivan (1982)

Ph.D., University of Oklahoma, 1984

Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences and Collection Manager, Hodgdon Herbarium, University of New Hampshire




Raymond B. Cranfill (1983)

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2001


Mark W. Chase (1984) 

Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1985

Director, Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew


George E. Schatz (1985)
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1987

Curator, Africa and Madagascar Department, Missouri Botanical Garden; Adjunct Professor, University of Missouri, St. Louis


Andrew J. Henderson (1986)

Ph.D., City University of New York, 1987

Curator, Institute of Systematic Botany, New York Botanical Garden


John V. Freudenstein (1987)

Ph.D., Cornell University, 1992

Director, Herbarium
, Museum of Biological Diversity, Ohio State University

Clayton J. Antieau (1988)

Ph.D., University of Washington, 1987

Senior Wetland Ecologist and Botanist, Washington State Department of Transportation


Chester E. Wilson (1990)

Ph.D., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1992 

Professor, Biochemistry Department, University of St. Thomas, Minnesota 


J. Travis Columbus (1992)

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1996 

Research Scientist, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont, California and Professor of Botany, Claremont Graduate University


Kathleen M. Pryer (1994)

Ph.D., Duke University, 1995

Professor, Biology Department, Duke University 



Amy J. Litt (1996) 

Ph.D., City University of New York, 1999


J. Chris Pires (1998)
 
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2000
 
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia


Anne Katherine Hansen (2000)

Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 2004
 


Andrew L. Hipp (2002)

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin—Madison, 2004

Plant Systematist & Herbarium Curator, Morton Arboretum 


Sarah E. Edwards (2003)

Ph.D., University of London, 2006

Data Services Officer: Medicinal Plant Names Services, Biodiversity Informatics and Spatial Analysis, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew


Danica T. Harbaugh (2004) 

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2007

Research Scientist, University and Jepson Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley

Ricarda Riina (2005)

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin—Madison, 2006

Researcher, Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid
 



Eric Schuettpelz (2006)

Ph.D., Duke University, 2007

Research Botanist & Assistant Curator, Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Jimmy Triplett (2007)

Ph.D., Iowa State University, 2008

Assistant Professor and Herbarium Curator, Department of Biology, Jacksonville State University


Dylan O. Burge (2008)

Ph.D., Duke University, 2011
  


The Lawrence Award was not presented in 2009.



Christine D. Bacon (2010)

Ph.D., Colorado State University
, 2011
Postdoctoral researcher, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Brian Sidoti (2011)
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 2015
Adjunct Professor, Natural Sciences, State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota

The Lawrence Award was not presented in 2012.

Aleksandar Radosavljevic (2013)
Ph.D., Northwestern University

The Lawrence Award was not presented in 2014.

Keir Wefferling (2015)
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, 2018
Postdoctoral researcher, University of California, Berkeley

Andre Hahn (2016)
Ph.D., Oregon State University, 2018

The Lawrence Award was not presented in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Other resources

For information about portraits of and biographical citations for the Lawrence Award recipients, see the Hunt Institute Archives Register of Botanical Biography and Iconography database.

George Hill Mathewson Lawrence (1910–1978), Rare Book Gallery of the Hunt Botanical Library (now Reading Room of the Hunt Institute), ca.1960–ca.1967, 25 × 20 cm, photograph by the Public Relations Office of Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), HI Archives portrait no. 8.