Two Alumni -- Noor and Orr -- Win Prestigious Medal !

What do Mohamed Noor and H. Allen Orr have in common? Besides that their last names rhyme, they're alumni of the William and Mary's Biology Department, and both were students of Bruce Grant? In the same year, both Noor and Orr won one of the most prestigious awards in their field!

These former students of professor emeritus Bruce Grant were awarded one of the highest honors in biology: in 2008 Mohamed Noor ('92) and H. Allen Orr ('82 and '85) received the Darwin-Wallace Medal from The Linnean Society. The award has been given only every 50 years, and it is extraordinary that of the 13 recipients (including well known biologists such as Stephen Jay Gould and Lynn Margolis ), two of the 13 are graduates of the William and Mary Department of Biology! The Darwin-Wallace award is given to persons who have made major advances in evolutionary biology in the last 50 years. From The Linnean Society's website :

"The Darwin-Wallace Medal was awarded in 1908, 1958 and again in 2008 for 'major advances in evolutionary biology'.  It was awarded to commemorate the 50th, 100th and 150th anniversaries of the reading of the joint paper by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection", which was read on 1st July 1858, and published by the Linnean Society. “ – The Linnean Society."
Continued: What a Difference a Mentor Makes

Darwin-Wallace Medal Awardees

Recipients for the Silver Darwin-Wallace Medal for 2008:

Nick Barton

Mark Chase

Bryan Clarke

Joseph Falsenstein

Stephen Jay Gould (posthumous)

P. R Grant & Rosemary Grant

James (Jim) Mallet

Lynn Margulis

John Maynard-Smith (posthumous)

Mohamed Noor

H. Allen Orr

Linda Partridge