In 2020, we lost Dean William Taylor, a giant of the Northern California botanical community. He had an irrepressible enthusiasm for everything botanical, a genius for teaching, and an unparalleled understanding of the mechanisms driving plant speciation and distribution. His record of outstanding collections and discovery of new taxa speaks for itself. Dean was a champion of the unexplored botanical diversity of California, and frequently took the stage at our symposia to encourage people to collect specimens and work to define that diversity. In the absence of his electrifying speeches and reliable advice, we hope that the material support of the Dean W. Taylor Botanical Exploration Memorial Award will help a new generation of botanists fill his shoes.
The aim of the Dean W. Taylor Botanical Exploration Memorial Award is to cover costs associated with botanical exploration in Northern California. This award is open to all people with an interest in the native plants and wildland ecology of Northern California, including students, practicing botanists, land managers, and dedicated herbarium collectors. We encourage projects that echo Dean Taylor's goals of finding unknown botanical diversity in California, namely collecting in under-collected areas, work to explore the habitat and range of known taxa, and efforts to discover and define new taxa.
The 2023 awardees and their research can be found on the Dean W. Taylor Botanical Exploration Memorial Award: Current Recipients page.
The application period for the 2024 Dean Taylor awards is now open!
The Deadline for Applications has been extended until November 10, 2023.
Applications are now being accepted for the 2024 awards. Applications should provide a short description of the proposed project, a budget of how funds (up to $500) will be spent, and a resume emphasizing botanical experience. Complete instructions on how to apply can be found in the documents below. Please email questions to ncbotanists@gmail.com. The application deadline has been extended until November 10, 2023. Applications will be reviewed in November and the applicants notified. Awardees for 2024 will be announced at the 2024 Northern California Botanists Symposium in January.
Awardees may be asked to present at the following Northern California Botanist (NCB) symposium or write an article for the NCB newsletter.