The Gerald W. Prescott Award recognizes scholarly work in English in the form of a published book or monograph devoted to phycology. This year the Prescott Committee received four nominations for books and monographs published in 2017 and 2018. Each of nominated books were outstanding contributions to the field of phycology. After lengthy and careful deliberation, this year’s award is presented to John Huisman for “Algae of Australia: Marine benthic algae of northwestern Australia, 2. Red algae.” (2018, CSIRO Publishing, Locked Bag 10, Clayton, South VIC 3169, Australia. [ISBN 9781486309542]). This volume provides descriptions of the red macroalgae ranging across tropical and warm temperate ecosystems in a region of Australia that has been understudied due to its remoteness. The volume complements the 2015 publication of the region’s green and brown macroalgae by the same author. The monograph includes newly described genera and species (7 and 88, respectively); some were described by the author, others reflect the work of the author and collaborators. The taxonomic work incorporates both morphological and molecular data and has keys, photographs, and diagrams to help readers who are new to this flora. Excellent and detailed reviews of the book are provided by Kraft (2019) and Wynne (2019), which we encourage you to read along with John’s book. As Kraft (2019) suggests, “If the reader has a favorite family or genus of warmwater red in any number of taxonomic groups, he or she is sure to find endless pleasure in delving deeply into or just recreationally browsing big chunks of this very user-friendly book.” Congratulations John!

Kraft, G.T. (2019) Algae of Australia: Marine benthic algae of northwestern Australia, 2. Red algae, Phycologia, DOI: 10.1080/00318884.2018.1551025 Wynne, M.J. (2019), Book Review. J. Phycol., 55: 500-502. doi:10.1111/jpy.12840