The Newsletter of Botanical University Challenge
Issue 7 – April 2024

The seventh issue includes:

  • BUC2024 – Record Turnout!
  • BUC2024 – Results so far: a Wild Thyme!
  • GQT at University of Reading
  • Read all about BUC2024 team experiences
  • The Thymes interview: Dr Marjorie Lundgren
  • Blogging to beat plant blindness
  • BUC alumni: Jordan Bilsborrow
  • Meet the BUC2024 semifinal and final chairs
  • BUC2024 prizes
  • Limerick and team name competitions
  • BUC taster questions
  • BUC art and photography competition 2024
  • Coming soon BUC2025 calendar
  • BUC2024 roll call – all the teams!
  • Joke Thyme
  • Our sponsors, thanks and The Thymes team
The_Thymes_issue7_April_2024Download

Extra information for Issue 7

The full interview with Dr Marjorie Lundgren

Issue 6 – January 2024

The sixth issue includes:

  • Are you ready for BUC 2024
  • Meet the Chairs!
  • What’s in a name?
  • Advent Botany branches out!
  • The Thymes Interview: Lindsay Turnbull, University of Oxford
  • BUC taster questions
  • BUC Alumni: Joshua Styles
  • BUC at British and Irish Botanical Conference 2023
  • Careers & Courses: PhD to Post-doc
  • Joke thyme
  • Our sponsors, thanks and the Thymes Team
The_Thymes_Issue6_January2024Download

Extra information for Issue 6

The full interview with Professor Lindsay Turnbull

Issue 5 – November 2023

The fifth issue includes:

  • What is Botanical University Challenge?
  • Call for teams for BUC2024
  • More memories of the first Student Botany Festival 2023
  • Audience experience of BUC2023
  • BUC taster questions
  • BUC on social media
  • Crab apple by Yi Zhao
  • Interview with a Botanist: Professor John Warren, author of Frustrating Flowers and Puzzling Plants.
  • Careers with plants: Do you have a head for heights and do you like climbing?
  • Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland Annual Meeting 2023
  • Update on BUC2024 and the second Student Botany Festival
  • Joke thyme
  • Our sponsors, thanks and the Thymes team
The_Thymes_Issue5_November2023Download

Extra information for Issue 5

The full interview with Professor John Warren

Issue 4 – August 2023

The fourth issue includes:

  • Overview of BUC2023 and the first Student Botany Festival
  • Students accounts of Student Botany Festival
  • Thoughts from the finalists of BUC2023
  • Interview with a Botanist: Dr Susie Lydon, University of Nottingham and local organiser of the Student Botany Festival
  • Get Creative art competition winners
  • Careers with plants: a student placement with a consultancy and advice from the careers workshop at Student Botany Festival
  • BUC taster questions
  • Joke thyme
  • Our BUC2023 sponsors, thanks and the Thymes team
The_Thymes_issue4_August2023Download

Extra information for Issue 4:

Interview with Dr Susie Lydon

Issue 3 – April 2023

The third issue includes:

  • What happened in Rounds 1 and 2 in February
  • Meet the Chairs for the BUC2023 Semifinal and Final
  • Prizes and Best Team Names
  • A Botanically Significant BUC trophy that honours a remarkable plant scientist, the late Professor Howard ‘Sid’ Thomas
  • BUC2023 team stories – Aberystwyth, Bristol, Trinity College Dublin and Southampton
  • Get Creative with Plants competition
  • City Nature Challenge 2023
  • BUC alumni interview – Calum Mclennan, University of Lancaster
  • Plant Swap
  • Red List Botanists
  • BUC taster questions
  • Our BUC2023 sponsors and the Thymes team
  • A botanical joke!
The-Thymes-Issue-3Download

Extra Information for Issue 3:

Interview with Calum Mclennan

Issue 2 – January 2023

The second issue includes:

  • Reminder about Botanical University Challenge 2023 dates
  • Student Botany Festival July 2023
  • Meet the BUC2023 chairs
  • Tales from a BUC team – University of Galway, Ireland
  • More BUC taster questions
  • A life in plants – with Dr Sandy Knapp FLS FRS OBE
  • Behind the graphics – illustrations in The Thymes – Yi Zhao, University of Cambridge
  • More about the Student Botany Festival 2023 at University of Nottingham
  • BUC alumni interview – Rory Queripel, The Eden Project
  • Finding the Killarney filmy fern – Calum McClennan, University of Lancaster
  • Botanical careers and courses
  • Our BUC2023 sponsors
  • About The Thymes team
  • A botanical joke!
  • Form for feedback about The Thymes
The_Thymes_issue2_Jan2023Download

Extra information for Issue 2:

Teams briefing session about BUC2023, held 11 January

Interview with Dr Sandy Knapp

Issue 1 – October 2022

The first issue includes:

  • Introducing Botanical University Challenge 2023
  • BUC tales from a winning team
  • BUC taster question (answer at the end of issue 1!)
  • A life in plants – into the wilderness with Chris Thorogood
  • Get Creative with Plants competition
  • BUC alumni interview – vascular plant specialist Alex Mills
  • Inspiring courses and careers in botany
  • About The Thyme team
  • Form for feedback about The Thymes
The_Thymes_issue1_Oct2022Download

Extra information for Issue 1:

Recordings of the interview ‘A life in plants – into the wilderness with Chris Thorogood’ :

“Hi Chris, great to hear from you again. What have you been up to since BUC 2022“
“You work on parasitic plants and you’ve travelled the globe to see them. Can you tell us more about these strange plants and why they’re important, Chris?”
“Heading to remote places to go plant hunting isn’t something everyone gets to experience, what is going on a botanical expedition like? These experiences feature in your new book Chasing Plants – tell us why you wrote this.”