NEWS
Updates for Fall 2024
GRAD STUDENT EMILY POINDEXTERÂ WINS WASHINGTON BIOLOGIST FIELD CLUB AND VIRGINIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY GRANTS
Emily received two competitive awards to support her Master's thesis research, "Conservation genetic analysis of Ozark Milkvetch (Astragalus distortus; Fabaceae), a Critically Imperiled Virginia native plant." Congratulations, Emily! (posted April 2024)
HISTORICAL RESEARCH ABOUT VIRGINIAN BOTANIST LENA ARTZ CONTINUES
Regional memory of the life and scientific legacy of Lena Artz remains strong in the Massanuttens, so my reaching out to community groups is a key way to discover more about her. The Shenandoah County Historical Society produced an excellent video recording of one of my recent presentations. (Posted September 2024).
TWO NEW HERBARIUM OUTREACH VIDEOS DEBUT
In collaboration with GMU-TV production services, Matthew Sheik and I created two publicly available outreach videos about the GMUF/LFCC herbarium: An introduction to the George Mason University Herbarium and How herbarium specimens are curated for global research. These will be used to introduce generations of Mason students to collections-based research, as part of the broader impacts of NSF #2022918.
NEW APP! FLORA OF VIRGINIA ROLLS OUT A NEW VERSION THAT INCLUDES NATURAL COMMUNITIES.
In September 2023, I, along with other board members of the Flora Virginia project, published the latest version of the Flora of Virginia smart-phone app. This app integrates extensive information about the ecological communities of Virginia, which are defined by plant species, with the authoritative scientific reference for plant biodiversity of the Commonwealth.
OZARK MILKVETCH, ASTRAGALUS DISTORTUS, REDISCOVERED IN VIRGINIA!
Our lab relocated the State Historical species Astragalus distortus on the Short Mountain shale barren in Shenandoah County on May 5, in partnership with the Virginia Natural Heritage Program. It is now listed as State Imperiled/Globally Secure and the focus of upcoming phylogeographic research. Research conducted by NSF REPS intern, Sabiha Basit, was essential to its relocation. (May 2022)
SABBATICAL FOR ACADEMIC YEARÂ 2022-23
First ever research sabbatical leave granted for AY 22-23. Lots of projects to retool and build anew!
NEW COMMIPHORA SPECIES PUBLISHED
Commiphora omundomba Swanepoel & Weeks, endemic to the hyperarid regions of Namibia and Angola, was published in Phytotaxa, after more than 10 years of research. The name for this species honors the local Ovahimba name for this remarkably resilient tree. (May 2022)
HIDDEN FIGURE OF VIRGINIAN BOTANY GETS A WIKIPEDIA PAGE
The intellectual contributions of Lena Clemmons Artz, an early pioneer of shale barren floristics in Virginia, are now visible in a Wikipedia biography page that I recently created. Heretofore "unGoogleable", her academic life and legacy will be the focus several upcoming invited talks and publications in 2022. (January 2022)
ELIZABETH MCMURCHIE WINS 2021 WINDLER AWARD FOR BEST SYSTEMATICS PAPER
Elizabeth won recognition from the journal Castanea for her paper describing her Master's thesis research - a floristic checklist of Loudoun County's Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship. Congratulations, Elizabeth! (Posted June 2021).
CURRICULUM IMPACT GRANT AWARDED FOR 2021-2022: BIOLOGY + DATA SCIENCE
Mason's Office of the Provost is supporting a collaboration between the Departments of Biology (myself and Dr. Geri Grant) and Computational and Data Sciences (Drs. Ron Mahabir and Jason Kinser) entitled, "Addressing the needs of UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 by creating new pathways to success for early career biology students through computational data science." The work will develop a Biology-specific section of Computing for Scientists (CDS 130) that 1) draws on ecological and bioinformatic datasets that support UN SDG 3 (Global Human Health and Well-being) and 2) showcases the diversity of researchers and career paths at the data science + biology interface. (Posted May 2021)
UNIVERSITY ARBORETUM RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL ACCREDITATION
The university team that I have been organizing was successful in receiving Level II accreditation for the university campuses from the ArbNet Accreditation Program, the only global initiative to officially recognize arboreta based on a set of professional standards. Our university is now listed in the Morton Registry of Arboreta. Inaugural board members include myself, Dr. Cindy Smith, associate professor, College of Science; Erich Miller, International Society of Arboriculture Board Certified Master Arborist #MA-6102A and grounds program manager, Facilities; Sarah D’Alexander, program manager for the Patriot Green Fund, Office of Sustainability; Ben Auger, program manager for education and outreach, Office of Sustainability; Doni Nolan, program manager for the Greenhouse & Gardens program, Office of Sustainability; and Katherina Wilkins, a Mason undergraduate student. (Posted May 2021).
GRAD STUDENT MATTHEW SHEIK WINS SHC RESEARCH GRANT
Matthew received support from the Society of Herbarium Curators Graduate Research Award fund for his proposal, "A floristic checklist of Shenandoah River State Park, Warren County, Virginia" Congratulations, Matthew! (Posted May 2021)
UNIVERSITY ARBORETUM RECEIVES SAIL SEEDS OF CHANGE AWARD
The GMU Social Action and Integrative Learning (SAIL) Program recognized the efforts of our Arboretum team with a Seeds of Change award for outstanding community engagement. (Posted May 2021)
NSF GRANT AWARDED FOR 2021-2023
Our NSF award #2022918, "Proposal to salvage, integrate and house the LFCC herbarium at George Mason University," will build research infrastructure, develop human resources, engage diverse audiences and disseminate LFCC's digitized data about its herbarium specimens and written records. (Posted May 2021)
FENWICK LIBRARY FELLOWSHIP AWARDED FOR ACADEMIC YEAR 20-21
This fellowship explores the concept of the Extended Specimen, which describes the power of specimen-linked datasets for driving discovery across disciplines. In collaboration with DiSC, we are digitizing the 16 collection and accession notebooks of the LFCC herbarium to cross-link their entries with the existing publicly-accessible database of its herbarium specimens. This new digital resource for research in the sciences and humanities is now being built. (Posted November 2020)
NEW UNIVERSITY ARBORETUM UNVEILED
We have enlarged the University arboretum to 106 spp. across four Mason campuses, posted it on PlantsMap.com, and installed QR-code enabled signage in collaboration with the Patriot Green Fund, University Facilities' arborist, Erich Miller (pictured here), and undergraduate students Drake Spina, Joseph Lepak, Katherina Wilkins. (Posted November 2020)
LFCC ADOPTION ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE VASCULUM.
An article describing the discoveries we have made as a consequence of curating the LFCC collection was recently published in The Vasculum. This work was made possible by support from the Virginia Native Plant Society and the GMU OSCAR FW/S Undergraduate Research Assistantship Program. (Posted November 2020)
THE GEORGE HIGHLIGHTS GILBERT'S CORNER STUDENT RESEARCH.
University reporters visited our BIOL345 Plant Ecology field lab at Gilbert's Corner this October. The article in The George includes lovely photographs of students in action. An earlier press-release by Piedmont Environmental Council about our collaboration was picked up by Inside NOVA. (Posted November 2020)
