Austin, TX—The American Botanical Council (ABC) presented two awards this month, according to a press release. First, they announced that the 2019 Fredi Kronenberg Excellence in Research and Education in Botanicals for Women’s Health Award will be presented to Mary L. Hardy, MD. Second, they have announced that the 2019 James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award is going toFlora of the Voynich Codex: An Exploration of Aztec Plants, co-authored by Arthur O. Tucker, Ph.D., and Jules Janick, Ph.D., and published by Springer, according to the release.
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“Arthur would have been elated by this award, since his efforts to unravel the Voynich Codex, the world’s most mysterious manuscript, consumed him for the last seven years of his life,” said Jules Janick in a press release. “InThe Flora of the Voynich Codex,identification [of the plants] was extended to 166 phytomorphs, all but one indigenous to the New World. It reinforced our mantra that there was no way that a manuscript with a sunflower and an armadillo could be a 15th-century European work [as both species are native to the Western Hemisphere]….The award is a final tribute to my dear friend and an indefatigable botanist.”

“I am very touched and honored to be given this award and doubly honored for the sisterhood I find myself in,” Hardy said in the release. “This is a lovely way to remember my dear friend Fredi, and it is a great privilege to be included in the company of two of the leaders in women’s health, Aviva Romm [M.D.] and Tieraona Low Dog [M.D.], the prior recipients of this award,” she continued.

The awards were supposed to be presented at the 15th Annual ABC Botanical Celebration and Awards Ceremony on March 4, 2020, in Anaheim, California, but it was cancelled in response to global concerns surrounding the Coronavirus.