Kamaljit S. Bawa becomes first Indian to be honoured with Linnean Medal in Botany

Indian botanist Dr. Kamaljit S. Bawa has been conferred with the prestigious Linnean Medal in Botany from the Linnean Society of London on May 24, 2018. He has been recognized for his pioneering research on the evolution of tropical plants, tropical deforestation, non-timber forest products and for decades of work on the biodiversity of forests in Central America, the Western Ghats and the Eastern Himalaya. With this, he became the first Indian to win the award ever since it was first constituted in 1888. Dr. Bawa is the President of Bengaluru-based non-profit Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). The Linnean Medal is awarded to a biologist every year by the Linnean Society of London (the world’s oldest active biological society founded in 1788 and named after famous Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus who gave us one of the systems of naming plants and animals).