Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  Newberry College

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I am a botanist and ecologist, working with rare species. I have completed several survey projects over the years to understand why species become rare and what environment they prefer or need to survive. Current I am working with two groups of plants: 1) mud plantains, which are common in the tropics as aquatics, some species are weeds in rice field while other species are very rare; and 2) native azaleas of the southeastern USA, and in this case there is discrepancy over species definitions. In both cases I am looking at why some species are rare while other species are abundant and sometimes even weedy.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

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

  I love the May-white azalea (Rhododendron eastmanii). I have been studying its ecology for the last 15 years. When the species was first described (1997) it was known from only two locations. My field work has resulted in it now being known from 60 populations in South Carolina. I love the field trips to find new populations.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  Can you share a funny/interesting lab or field story?

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

  I was on my first field trip to find a new population of May-white azalea. I knew it had a distinctive sweet smell and had that smell in my mind. As I was walking through a woodland along a creek and looking for a new location I suddenly got a whiff of the flowers. I looked all around and could not see the plants. So I continued down stream figuring I would soon come across a bunch of plants. Nothing. Even the odor went away. So I turned around and as I retraced my steps the sweet smell came back. I looked around again, still no plants in sight. So I thought maybe the plants were not along the creek, but up the hill in the forest. As I walked up hill the odor got stronger. I finally realized I was standing under a shrub. As I climbed the hill a little to get a view from above I was amazed to see a shrub with over a hundred flowers. Amazing!

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is tough about being a scientist?

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

  Answers to questions do not come easily. Let's face it, scientists have been asking some questions for hundreds of years. So you sometimes need to repeat experiments that others have done before and come up with the same negative results. You learn from these mistakes and negative outcomes. it is then that you finally have a positive outcome and see something that was not known before.

  
  
• Availability

  I am NOT available, please temporarily remove me from the available mentor list

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

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

No recent activity.