The fifth Dawkins Prize for Conservation and Animal Welfare has been awarded to Dr Amanda Vincent for her work in ocean conservation – including the study of seahorses. The prize is awarded by Balliol for outstanding research into ecology and behaviour of animals whose welfare may be endangered by human activity.
A professor at the UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, Dr Vincent has dedicated her career to ocean conservation. She was the first biologist to study seahorses underwater, and to discover their species-threatening, global trade. In 1996, she co-founded, with the Zoological Society of London, and still directs, Project Seahorse, an international team committed to conservation and sustainable use of the world’s coastal marine ecosystems. which leads in marine conservation, working to take effective action for seahorses and their seas. Dr Vincent has led on other marine conservation initiatives all over the world, from community-based local projects to global policy ventures. There is more information about her work here.
As winner of the prize she will give the Dawkins Award Lecture on a date to be announced.
The Dawkins Prize is endowed by a generous donation from the family of Professor Richard Dawkins FRS (1959 and Honorary Fellow), who was the first holder of Oxford University’s Charles Simonyi Professorship of the Public Understanding of Science. It was instigated by his father, the late John Dawkins (Balliol 1933), on behalf of the Dawkins family, ten of whom have been at Balliol. The prize is awarded biennially.