In May 2016 we launched a new competition for early career ecologists to write a Synthesis or Review article for the journal. Today, on International Women’s Day, we are pleased to announce that we have named the new award in honour of Sidnie Manton and present the six shortlisted papers for the inaugural award.

Sidnie Manton was a highly regarded zoologist best known for her work on the functional morphology and evolution of arthropods, also known as simply “the high priestess of the arthropods” (Fortly 2008). She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1948 becoming only the seventh women to achieve the accolade. Sidnie Manton’s legacy to science is her vast body of work and observational studies (Fryer 1980).

Sidnie Manton was known for her exceptional illustrations in her published work. She also had an incredible ability for multitasking; she combined these skills when lecturing and would astound students by drawing a complex diagram with her left hand while simultaneously labelling it with her right!

We are delighted to be able to name the prize for an outstanding Synthesis or Review paper by an early career author in honour of such an inspiring, creative and passionate zoologist as Sidnie Manton. We are grateful to Elizabeth Clifford, Sidnie Manton’s daughter for providing photos and fascinating insights into her mother’s life.

Shortlisted papers

And here they are, the six shortlisted papers. The articles listed below are the contenders for the inaugural Sidnie Manton Award. Each of these articles successfully passed the initial proposal review as well as the full rigorous peer review process for Journal of Animal Ecology. They are a strong collection of papers reviewing and synthesising highly topical areas. The authors have also each written a blog post to introduce their work.

• Review by Lauren White, James Forester and Meggan E. Craft: Dynamic, spatial models of parasite transmission in wildlife: Their structure, applications and remaining challenges.  Find out more about the paper in the blog post Spatial disease models: picking a “useful” model for pressing ecological questions by Lauren.
• Synthesis by Jenni McDonald, Andy Robertson and Matthew Silk: Wildlife disease ecology from the individual to the population: Insights from a long-term study of a naturally infected European badger population. To celebrate National Badger Day, Andy wrote about the work in a blog Badgers and Disease Ecology.
• Review by Quinn Webber and Eric Vander Wal: An evolutionary framework outlining the integration of individual social and spatial ecology. Find out more about the paper in our behind the scenes blog post series in the post An evolutionary framework outlining the integration of individual social and spatial ecology by Quinn.
• Review by Ben Weinstein: A computer vision for animal ecology. Find out more about how ecologists can apply computer vision in the post It’s a bear! Adopting a ‘computer vision for animal ecology’ by Ben.
• Review by Pratha Sah, Janet Mann and Shweta Bansal: Disease implications of animal social network structure: A synthesis across social systems. On the blog, Pratha asks the question Social or solitary: Does social network protect from disease?
• Synthesis by Kristine Grayson and Derek Johnson: Novel insights on population and range edge dynamics using an unparalleled spatiotemporal record of species invasion. Kristine blogged about her research on gypsy moths, in the post Lessons from two decades of detailing an invasion front by Kristine.

Check out the next issue of the journal (87:3) where we will announce the winner! We will shortly be reopening the competition, keep an eye on the blog for updates.

References

Fortey, R. (2008). The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum: Dry Store Room No. 1.

Fryer, G. (1980). “Sidnie Milana Manton. 4 May 1902 – 2 January 1979”. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 26: 327–356. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1980.0010