The Society for Economic Botany

The award of "Distinguished Economic Botanist (DEB)*" is bestowed annually by the Society upon an individual on the basis of outstanding accomplishments pertinent to the goals of the Society. A nominee does not need to be a member of the Society. The Chairperson of the Nominations and Awards Committee shall be responsible for the citation which shall be published in Economic Botany. The only responsibility of the awardee shall be to present an address at the annual meeting the year of his/her selection. He/she shall become an honorary member of the Society for life.

To nominate someone for this award please click here to fill out the SEB Nomination Form. Nominations deadline is April 1, 2023.

*Please note that the "Distinguished Economic Botanist" award will be renamed the "Distinguished Ethnobotanist" award after the 2023 SEB Meeting in June. All applicants in 2023 will be applying for the award in this new name.

Recipients of the Distinguished Economic Botanist award are:

2023 - Dr. Bradley C. Bennett

2022 - Dr. Diane Ragone

Diane Ragone, Director of the Breadfruit Institute at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii, has been dedicated to conserving, studying, and promoting breadfruit for 35 years. She is the acknowledged expert on this crop. 

Through fieldwork on 50 Pacific islands to document breadfruit diversity and associated knowledge she established and curates the world’s largest repository of breadfruit diversity, preserving 150 cultivars—many of them rare and vanishing in their homelands. Numerous researchers and students have worked with Dr. Ragone to systematically study this unique genetic resource with the goal of better understanding breadfruit to enhance its conservation and use. 

Dr. Ragone has written or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers, technical reports, and book chapters, as well as popular articles on breadfruit. She has also forged partnerships with universities, botanical gardens, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, communities, businesses, and others to foster appreciation and use of this heretofore underutilized crop. Diane spearheaded a collaborative project to develop new methods to propagate breadfruit. That work was key to launching a global initiative in 2009 to distribute nutritious varieties for food, agroforestry and economic development. To date, more than 100,000 breadfruit trees have been distributed to 44 countries, primarily to smallholder farmers.

Diane’s work epitomizes the field of economic botany through the synergy of horticulture and ethnobotany: quest for knowledge, preservation, conservation, research, creative experimentation, sharing, mentoring, and fulfilling a humanitarian mission. Her involvement with the Society of Economic Botany since 1987 has helped shape and guide her multidisciplinary approach.

2021 - Dr. Pablo Eyzaguirre

Dr. Eyzaguirre is best known for his work on agricultural resilience, food security, and climate change in rural communities worldwide. Trained as an anthropologist (PhD, Yale, 1986), his work has been highly interdisciplinary, at the crossroads of nutrition, plant genetic resources, and rural livelihoods. It has often shone light on topics previously overlooked in research and policy: the intersection of nutrition and ethnobotany, for example in the role of leafy wild vegetables, seed conservation in small-scale agriculture, home gardens, gender, and resilience and climate change. Dr. Eyzaguirre’s work has been truly international in scope, starting with fieldwork in west Africa and expanding to take in most regions of the world, and many of the topics that fall within the remit of the Society for Economic Botany.

A truly distinctive element of this life’s work is a commitment to catalysing research and policy development by others. Much of this has been accomplished through Bioversity International, Dr Eyzaguirre’s base for most of his career, and is manifested through countless workshops, reports, policy initiatives and projects that have disseminated skills and methods worldwide. Publications form only a part of this output, but over 5000 citations testify to their impact. Dr. Eyzaguirre has also served the discipline in other ways: as President of the International Society of Ethnobiology (2004-2006), advisor to the Groupe de Recherche Mosaïque (CNRS-CEFE Montpellier), and as member of the science panel for the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society at the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

This remarkable body of work linking biodiversity and health is more important than ever, given the likely impact of climate on rural communities. We are glad to honour Pablo Eyzaguirre for his critical role in widening the horizons of our community, and his generous sharing of insights and methods that will be essential in the urgent work that lies ahead.