The Marsh Award for Insect Conservation

Mr Peter Harvey for his outstanding and exemplary contribution to Insect Conservation

Peter has made a huge contribution to the conservation of insects and other invertebrates. His energy and output is exceptional on an impressive variety of fronts. There can be few people who have both directly and indirectly served invertebrate conservation so forcefully and effectively behind the scenes.

His contribution to entomology is considerable and can stand alone. However, his expertise as a national expert on invertebrates extends beyond insects; he has organised the national spider reecording scheme for many years and was the first of three editors of the Provisional Atlas of British Spiders, published in 2002.

At a local level, he has been a leading light in Essex, promoting the study of insects and other arthropods through co-editing Essex Naturalist, the journal of the Essex Field Club, and Essex Field Club News. In addition, he is Essex County Recorder for a number of invertebrate groups including spiders, the aculeate Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants), and woodlice.

Mr Steven Falk for his outstanding and exemplary contribution to Insect Conservation

Steven Falk is a naturalist and artist with a particular fascination for bees, wasps and flies. Steven's career has oscillated between the nature conservation and museum sectors, with roles that have included acting as the Nature Conservancy Council's in-house expert on bees, wasps and flies, Coventry's Ecology Officer, and Senior Keeper of Natural History in two museum services. In such roles he has been able to promote insect conservation by ensuring that insects and habitats such as brownfield land started to receive recognition and protection that had traditionally eluded them. He was able to use his position to promote invertebrate conservation within biodiversity action planning, local wildlife site selection and local wildlife recording. Steven is also a busy entomologist outside of his work, and has carried our major studies of Warwickshire, the South Downs, New Forest and several important streches of coastline. As an artist he is best known for his work in the books British Hoverflies published by BENHS and the Collins Guide to Insects of Britain and Western Europe by Michael Chinery, but he has also illustrated the covers of two RES handbooks and various other publications. He is now pioneering new web-based approaches for disseminating image-rich, user-friendly information on insects and insect conservation. His website www.stevenfalk.co.uk features his artwork, reports and a link to his rapidly-growing Flickr site which promises to become an important resource for entomologists and other naturalists and nature lovers.

Dr Steve Cham for his outstanding and exemplary contribution to Insect Conservation

Steve Cham has had a lifetime fascination for Natural History with his interest in Entomology nurtured while working at Rothamsted Experimental Station during the early part of his career. Having moved on he continued his interest and personal research as a volunteer. He has been a member of the British Dragonfly Society (BDS) since its formation in 1983 and has published a number of papers in its journal. Steve became national co-ordinator for the Dragonfly Recording Network (DRN) after the scheme was transferred from the BRC. He was quick to see the benefits to conservation of providing Odonata data to the NBN and the DRN dataset was used as a pilot during the development of the gateway. Steve has also been an active member of the Dragonfly Conservation Group of the BDS for over a decade and has been involved in a number of conservation initiatives that benefit these insects. Steve is author of several books on Dragonflies including the Dragonflies of Bedfordshire and a two volume field guide to the larvae and exuviae of British Dragonflies. He is also co-author of Dragonflies of Hampshire. Steve lectures on his favourite subject and is the leader on various courses. His photographs have been used widely. Steve is currently involved on the working party for the next National atlas of British Dragonflies.

Dr Roger Key for his outstanding and exemplary contribution to Insect Conservation

Originally from Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, Roger's PhD was in the Humber's estuarine invertebrates and was followed by work as development officer for the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust. Thence to the Nature Conservancy Council/ English Nature & Natural England he worked on conservation of invertebrates and their habitats for over 20 years, covering protected species, habitat evaluation, site defence and management advice. Roger eventually become senior specialist in invertebrates, before capitalizing on the educational work that he did in that role from kids minibeasts safaris to supervising PhD studentships to become Senior Education Specialist for Natural England. Roger eventually retired (early!) to become an independent ecological/entomological/ environmental educational consultant where his work includes lecturing/advising course content for 11 universities and continuing children's invertebrate work.

Dr David Lonsdale

David Lonsdale spent most of his career as a tree pathologist working for what was then the Forestry Commission at its Alice Holt Research Station near Farnham (now their separate research arm, Forest Research). Much of his professional work brought him in contact with insect specialists in the Entomology Department.

David has had a lifelong interest in insects and especially their conservation. He has been a long-standing and major figure within the Amateur Entomologists Society, serving on their council, and really being responsible for their initial engagement with the field of insect conservation. He initiated, and continues to be the editor of, their newsletter Insect Conservation News which has long been a source of information and inspiration for entomologists and practical conservationists in the field.

Professor Garth Foster

Prof Garth Foster has been the moving force behind water beetle conservation in Britain for over thirty years. As well as making an enormous personal contribution to our knowledge of water beetles in Britain, Ireland and the Iberian penisula, he has achieved astounding success in inspiring others to take up the study of water beetles.