Profile

• Time Zone

  Central

  
  
• Organization

  Sam Houston State University

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I am a plant ecologist who works currently on plant-insect interactions, specifically pollinator biodiversity and plant reproductive success. Current research involves a project with colleagues from SHSU and Stephen F Austin University on a biodiversity survey of east texas pollinators with a focus on bumblebees and long-horned bees, a project with colleagues at Szeged university, hungary on pollinator biodiversity in solar farms, a campus bee survey (with an undergraduate student), and a project on carolina jessamine reproductive biology in east texas

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  When and why did you decide to go into a science career?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  I became interested in a science career during my undergraduate studies. With my father being an engineer and older siblings studying biomedical engineering and veterinary science respectively, a career in science seemed like a natural fit. I actually planned to go to Law School with a focus on Environmental Law but was drawn into the basic and applied sciences instead.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  My favorite plant is the one I studied for my doctoral dissertation. It is Ardisia escalloniodes (Florida Marlberry) in the Myrsinaceae family. It lives in the Caribbean basin and as a shrub, is small compared to the bigger trees that make up the forest canopy. It has a cool survival strategy though-wait for a big hurricane to knock down the trees and grow, flower and escape a seed predator for a few years. It is also a lovely color and has nice fragrant white flowers.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is the coolest thing you have discovered or learned about plants?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  As someone who now studies the bees that pollinate plants, the evolution of the flower and the coevolutionary race between plants and pollinators never gets boring to learn about. Whether it is an orchid that mimics a wasp that tries to mate with it to a Yucca and its specialized pollinators to a Hibiscus flower and its specialist bees like Ptilothrix bombiformis, there is always an interesting concept to study

  
  
• How did you hear about PlantingScience?

  Botanical Society of America

  
  
• Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?

  2