The International Society of Protistologists and The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology conferred the 2015 William Trager Award on: R.S. Schwarz, G.R. Bauchan, C.A. Murphy, J. Ravoet, D.C. de Graaf, and J.D. Evans, for publishing the highest impact article entitled: “Characterization of two species of trypanosomatidae from the honey bee Apis mellifera: Crithidia mellificae Langridge and McGhee, 1967 and Lotmaria passim n. gen, n. sp.” (vol. 62, Issue 5, pp. 567-83).
The study by Schwarz et al. reports genetic and ultrastructural data for type isolates of C. mellificae found in European honey bees (Apis mellifera). Phylogenetics identifies strains BRL/SF as a novel taxonomic unit distinct from C. mellificae strains 30254/30862. They propose the binomial Lotmaria passim n. gen, n. sp. for this previously undescribed taxon and determined that this is currently the predominant trypanosomatid in European honey bees globally.
To honor his distinguished career in protozoology and his leadership role in establishing The Journal of Protozoology, the Society of Protozoologists established in 1998 the William Trager Award for Outstanding Paper of the Year. This award is given to the most cited original article published in the journal in the previous two years and consists in a Diploma and a $100.00 check to the first author of the article.