The recipient of the 2025 I.W. Bailey Award is Vicky Beckers, Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, the Netherlands, awarded for her paper entitled “Wood anatomy helps solve challenging taxonomic relationships in the tropical Sapotaceae”, published in IAWA Journal online 14 October 2025 for this year’s award. We thank the judges of 2025 I.W. Bailey award, Yafang Yin and Veronica De Micco for their time and effort.

The judges commented:

“This is an exceptionally impressive study that involves a heavy workload investigating wood anatomy traits. It provides additional morphological evidence using high-quality micrographs to clarify taxonomic relationships in the tropical Sapotaceae family. To the best of my knowledge, this paper is the first to present a wood anatomical overview of the entire pantropical Sapotaceae family, which covers 450 species spanning nearly all genera. Furthermore, this study fully embodies the long-standing tradition of fruitful collaboration within the globe wood anatomy community.”

“The review paper presents the first wood anatomical overview of the Sapotaceae based on approximately 450 species and about 1200 microscope slides (among them over 160 were self-made). It was not simple work since cutting Sapotaceae wood is challenging due to technical constraints. The work is well presented, objectives well defined, accompanied by beautiful images and a robust analysis, which allowed her to unravel several interesting evolutionary patterns using molecular phylogenies. She highlighted specific combinations of traits that may reveal functional importance. Studies like the one presented by Beckers et al. have great value for conservation: this article provides scientific tools to identify and thus protect Sapotaceae timber species, which are expected to be added to the CITES Appendices.”

From 2014 onwards, the I.W. Bailey Award is presented annually for the best original or review paper submitted to the IAWA Journal by an undergraduate, graduate student, or postdoc up to five years after their PhD defence since the submission of her/his manuscript. 

The Award consists of a certificate and 1000 Euro, sponsored by De Gruyter Brill. Candidates may nominate their submissions directly to the Editors in Chief of IAWA Journal: Veronica De Micco (demicco@unina.it) and Lloyd Donaldson (lloyd.donaldson@scionresearch.com), together with a one-page cv, and one supporting statement from a senior IAWA Member before  September 1st of the current year. The Award Committee will be formed by the Editors and Associate Editors of the IAWA Journal. Please visit http://www.editorialmanager.com/iawa/ for instructions to authors. 

I.W. Bailey Award 2026 is calling for Nominations by September 1st, 2026.