We are delighted to announce that the annual Ecological Solutions and Evidence prize for the best Research article in the journal by an early career researcher will be named the Georgina Mace Prize.

The British Ecological Society awards an annual prize to the best research paper by an early career author in each of the Society’s journals. The winner of the Early Career Researcher Award is selected by the Editors of the journal at the end of each year and an announcement is made early in the following year.

About Professor Dame Georgina Mace

As a conservation scientist, Georgina’s work on the measurement and consequences of biodiversity loss had far-reaching and long-lasting impacts.

Early in her career, Georgina worked with the IUCN to develop scientifically robust criteria for the inclusion of species on their Red List of Threatened Species. She was one of the first scientists to demonstrate that the extinction risk of a species can be predicted based on a few key characteristics even when the species’ actual status in the wild is unknown, and this allowed species that were being dangerously overexploited to be identified.

Georgina’s influence on policy included her role as a founding member of the Natural Capital Committee, where she developed a framework to bring the environment into economic decision-making.

Georgina was also extremely generous with her time and experience in support of early career ecologists. The Editors of Ecological Solutions and Evidence are delighted to name the annual prize for the best research paper by an early career author in honour of the first female President of the British Ecological Society.

“Georgina’s personal contributions to science are well documented. What took her family by surprise was the number of people she “helped along the way” early on in their careers. She didn’t talk about that so much, it was just what she did, all in a day’s work. So it’s entirely fitting and an honour that she should be remembered in this way, giving her name to a prize for best early career researcher.”

Rod Evans, Georgina Mace’s husband

Watch out for our post next week as we will be announcing the name of our prize for the best early career practitioner.

In the meantime, find out more about the winner of our inaugural prize winner, Christina Service, on the BES website.