PhD graduate wins prestigious essay prize

Recent PhD graduate, Lee Raye, has won the Society for the History of Natural History’s 2016 William T. Stearn Student Essay Prize.

The essay competition was established in 2007 to honour the late William T. Stearn, a noted academic and scholar on the history of botany and classical languages. He made a significant contribution to his fields of study and more widely to the work of the Society for the History of Natural History.

The competition was open to undergraduate and postgraduate students, in full or part-time education, and the prize was adjudicated based on the best original and unpublished essay in the field of natural history. Lee’s essay was entitled Why was Early Modern Scotland famous for lynxes?

In addition to being named the 2016 winner of the William T. Stearn Student Essay Prize, and accepting a cheque for £300, the judging panel also recommended that Lee’s essay be submitted to the Editor of Archives of Natural History, with a view to publication.

Lee has just finished studying for a PhD at the University having obtained an undergraduate Masters degree from the University of Aberdeen and a Postgraduate Masters degree from the University of Oxford. Their particular areas of research interest include wildlife history, species history, Medieval Studies, Celtic Studies, Medieval English and Medieval Latin.

The title of Lee’s thesis is The Forgotten Beasts in Medieval Britain: A Study of Extinct Fauna in Medieval Sources.

Professor Sioned Davies, Head of the School of Welsh, commented on Lee’s achievement: “This is fantastic news and we congratulate Lee on [their] success. Lee was awarded [their] PhD earlier this year and proved [themselves] a dedicated and meticulous researcher. We wish [them] every success for the future.”