Profile

• Time Zone

  Pacific

  
  
• Organization

  Stephen F. Austin State University

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  Systematics - at all levels from ordinal and wider to sections within genera.
  Ecology- Physiological basis of plant niches, plant interaction w/ herbivores and pollinators.
  Biogeography- the ice-age/early Holocene basis of modern plant distributions.

  
  
• 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 made the decision to go into biology during a conservation biology course in which I was enrolled during my senior year of high school. I had always planned to try to become a professional musician but found myself far too fascinated by conservation biology and associated aspects of ecology (trophic cascades, various symbioses) to consider music any further.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

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

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

  The most interested thing I have learned about plants is that chloroplasts are believed to have been originally free-living cyanobacteria that were subsequently incorporated into non-photosynthetic cells in an endosymbiosis event.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

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

  The maidenhair fern, Adiantum capillus-veneris. The pan-tropical distribution of the species suggests to me interesting questions concerning long-distance dispersal. Also, it's just very beautiful and I like to be around it.

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

  2

  
  

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