09 April 2025
Dr Jamie Thompson, a scientist at the 成人抖阴, has been named the recipient of the Irene Manton Prize by the Linnean Society of London, recognising his PhD thesis as the best doctoral thesis in botany submitted to a UK university in the past year.
The prize was announced today as part of the Linnean Society's annual medals and awards, which celebrate outstanding contributions to understanding and protecting the natural world.
Dr Thompson's doctoral research, titled "Tempo and drivers of angiosperm diversification" was carried out at the University of Bath and tackled one of evolutionary biology's greatest puzzles – how flowering plants came to dominate Earth's terrestrial ecosystems.
Using powerful statistical methods and vast datasets spanning tens of thousands of species, Dr Thompson explored how climate, geography and evolutionary innovation shaped plant diversity across our planet.
His analyses uncovered a powerful link between global cooling during the Cenozoic era and bursts of diversification in terrestrial orchids, revealing that falling temperatures may have helped fuel one of the planet's richest plant radiations.
The research also challenged long-held theories about succulent plants, demonstrating that not all succulent lineages diversified in the same way or at the same time, contrary to decades of established theory that linked their origins directly to planetary aridification.
Dr Thompson employed cutting-edge machine learning techniques to identify five key factors shaping cactus biodiversity, creating a methodological roadmap for understanding complexity in other plant groups.
Perhaps most remarkably, his work provided strong evidence that flowering plants showed extraordinary resilience during the mass extinction event that ended the age of dinosaurs, weathering a global catastrophe that decimated many animal lineages.
The Irene Manton Prize is awarded annually for the best thesis in botany examined for a doctorate of philosophy in a UK university. It honours the legacy of Professor Irene Manton (1904-1988), a groundbreaking botanist who made major contributions to understanding plant ultrastructure.
On receiving the award, Dr Thompson said: "I always wanted to be an evolutionary biologist, and it is humbling to win the Irene Manton Prize for the best PhD in the field. It would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of so many people."
Dr Thompson’s innovative approach to understanding plant evolution not only advances fundamental knowledge but also provides valuable insights for conservation in a changing world.
Dr Thompson will receive his award at the Linnean Society's Anniversary Meeting on 22 May 2025.
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