Barbara Gillian Briggs AM PSM is one of the foremost Australian botanists. The IK lists 205 names of plants which have been published or co-published by her. She was one of the botanists in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, of the 1998 APG system.
Briggs and Craig Anthony Atkins were co-awarded the Clarke Medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1994.
Briggs was awarded the Public Service Medal in 1998. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours for "significant service to science and research as a botanist, to documenting Australian flora, and to professional societies". She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales.
Since her retirement she continues as an Honorary Research Associate at the Sydney Botanical Gardens.