Allan Mere Award for 2024:

Dr Jessica Beever

Left: John Braggins, Peter de Lange, Jessica Beever, Paul Champion, and Ewen Cameron (left to right) at the presentation ceremony.
Right: Jessica receiving the Allan Mere from Anthony Wright.

The New Zealand Botanical Society Committee is delighted to announce the award of the Allan Mere for 2024 to Dr Jessica Beever. The award is made annually to a person or persons who have made outstanding contributions to botany in New Zealand, either in a professional or amateur capacity.

The following is the summary paragraph from her nomination by the Auckland and Wellington Botanical Societies:

“For over four decades Jessica has been involved in collecting, researching and publishing on New Zealand mosses. She is one of very few bryologists in New Zealand and one of only two involved in writing the new Moss eFlora. She is highly respected and liked throughout New Zealand and because of her knowledge and pleasant nature she is an asset on any scientific field trip. We feel that Jessica over this long-time span has made an outstanding contribution to the knowledge of New Zealand mosses and highly deserves to be awarded the Allan Mere. It is time Jessica was nominated for the award to sit alongside her late husband Ross as a recipient. The joint ABS and WBS nomination of Jessica for the Allan Mere Award 2024 is to recognise her very considerable contribution to the botanical understanding of New Zealand mosses.”

The nomination was supported by the Botanical Society of Otago, the Taranaki and Waikato Botanical Societies, John and Thelma Braggins, Peter de Lange, Barbara Parris and Wendy Nelson.

Anthony Wright, President, New Zealand Botanical Society

Citation reproduced from the New Zealand Botanical Society Newsletter, No. 157, Sept 2024.