Dianne Edwards facts for kids
Professor Dianne Edwards (born 1942) is a famous scientist who studies ancient plants. She is a palaeobotanist, which means she looks at plant fossils. Her work helps us understand how plants first started growing on land. She also studies how these early plants interacted with their environment.
Early Life
Dianne Edwards was born in Swansea, South Wales. She spent a lot of her childhood near the beautiful Gower Peninsula.
Her Work as a Scientist
Dianne Edwards mainly studies very old plant fossils. Most of these fossils have been found in the United Kingdom. She became interested in ancient plants when she saw fossils preserved in a mineral called pyrite, also known as "fools' gold." These fossils were special because they were preserved in 3D.
Later, much of her work focused on fossils from the Rhynie chert. This is a special type of rock that preserves ancient life in amazing detail. She also studied plant fossils that had turned into charcoal. These were found in the Welsh borderlands and South Wales.
Professor Edwards is a top Research Professor at Cardiff University. She used to be the head of the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences there. She is also a member of important groups like the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She works with scientists in China and helps the Beijing Museum of Natural History.
Amazing Discoveries
Some of Professor Edwards's most important discoveries include finding special "vascular tissue" inside an ancient plant called Cooksonia. This tissue is like tiny pipes that carry water and food in plants. She also studied stomata (tiny pores) in early land plants. She found very old plants that looked like modern liverworts.
By studying charcoal fossils, she proved that wildfires happened during the Silurian period. This was a very long time ago! She has also worked on mysterious fossils like Nematothallus, Tortilicaulis, and Prototaxites.
She has named many fossil plants, like Danziella and Demersatheca.
Awards and Honors
Professor Edwards has received many important awards and honors for her work:
- She became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1996. This is a very high honor for scientists.
- She was the President of the Palaeontological Association from 1996 to 1998.
- In 1999, she received the CBE for her great contributions to Botany (the study of plants).
- She was a Trustee of the Natural History Museum in London.
- She won the Lyell Medal in 2004, which is a major award in Earth sciences.
- She is a founding member of the Learned Society of Wales. In 2010, she became its first Vice-President for Science, Technology, and Medicine.
- She was the President of the Linnean Society of London from 2012 to 2015.
- In 2014, she received an honorary PhD from Uppsala University in Sweden.
