Botany

"Everyone is afraid at times. Learn to use your fear - it can fuel you to do more than you ever imagined possible." — Jane Poynter

Sustainability consultant, author, TV host, technology company president, environmental non-profit president

Born: 1962-01-01

Hometown: Tucson, AZ

Education: Life

Achievements

Discoveries: Artificial miniature biospheres work. Produced the first animals to complete their life cycles in space.

Expeditions: The first two-year mission of Biosphere 2, 1991-1993. Onboard the R.V. Heraclitus for the Sri Lanka to Egypt leg of the Round the Tropic World Expedition,1984.

Biography

Jane Poynter, explorer, author, Biospherian and President of Paragon Space Development Corporation, an aerospace firm that designs environments for extreme situations, is engaged in laying the groundwork for human space settlement. Founding Paragon grew out of her experience as a Biospherian, one of eight individuals chosen to live sealed for two years inside Biosphere 2, a bubble in Arizona, to learn if it was possible to replicate earth environments beyond earth. Through Paragon, Poynter works with aerospace organizations designing experiments for the Shuttle and the International Space Station. The company also designs life support systems for astronauts and Navy deep-sea divers. She has served as SPACEHAB's Chief Scientist for its Ecosystem in Space experiment; she holds a patent for the Autonomous Biological System; was Chief Scientist for Carbon Sequestration for the Seawater Foundation, a non-profit that is developing untreated seawater-based agroforestry projects in coastal deserts; and works with designing systems for carbon credit trading.

Jane is one of only eight people ever in history to live sealed in an artificial world for two years. Jane's preparation for Biosphere 2 involved training to survive in the Australian Outback and onboard a concrete research boat in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. She was part of the Biosphere from the start, ultimately managing the farm where the crew grew its food.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Binoculars, hand lens, wind-up flash light, camera, good book, mp3 player

Heroes: The great biologist Eugene O. Wilson; Queen Elizabeth I of England, the woman who united and built a nation; and Clair Francis, a woman from my hometown in England who sailed solo across the Atlantic.

"Cultivate (and enjoy) your five senses - they are key to having fun, and also to survival!" — Meg Lowman

Canopy Ecologist

Born: 1953-01-01

Hometown: Elmira, NY

Education: PhD in Botany

Achievements

Discoveries: Discovering a new species of beetle in the Amazon treetops; building canopy walkways so that indigenous people can earn income from eco-tourism, not logging; tropical tree leaves live up to 20 years!

Expeditions: Hot air ballooning to survey biodiversity in Cameroon, Africa; Jason expedition, broadcasting via satellite to 3 million kids from the Amazon treetops; climbing almost every tree in Australia (it seemed!)

Biography

Meg Lowman was a James Martin Fellow at the Tropical Forestry Center of the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University during Spring 2010. She is working on a book for University of California Press about Forest Canopy Monitoring, and also working with the team of forest ecologists in UK.  Meg had a paper published in Science Magazine about science education in American, featuring the new NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) program. She heads to Ethiopia during August 2010, funded by National Geographic, to sample biodiversity in the church forests of Ethiopia and also to create a conservation program for this important green places.

Meg Lowman pioneered the science of canopy ecology. For 30 years, she has designed hot-air balloons and walkways for treetop exploration to solve mysteries in the world's forests, with special expertise on the links between insect pests and ecosystem health. Meg is affectionately called the grandmother of canopy research, as one of the first scientists to explore this "eighth continent." She works relentlessly to "map" the canopy for biodiversity and to champion forest conservation in Florida, as well as around the world. Her academic training included Williams College (BA, Biology); Aberdeen University (MSc, Ecology); Sydney University (PhD, Botany); and Tuck School of Business (Executive Management).

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Oreo cookies, water and more water, headlamp, my most cushiony climbing harness

Heroes: Harriet Tubman who navigated the Underground Railway by feeling moss on the backs of trees in the dark, Rachel Carson who saved our songbirds, and my two boys for being such great spirited tree climbers

""As thy days, so shall thy strength be," (Deuteronomy 33:25)" — Jane Goodall

Scientist, environmentalist and conservation education promoter/activist

Born: 1934-01-01

Hometown: Bournemouth, UK

Education: PhD in Ethology

Achievements

Discoveries: That chimpanzees make and use tools. This discovery redefined the relationship between humans and non-humans. Dr. Goodall has radically changed the field of primatology both in terms of how chimps are studied and by observing how similar to human beings they are.

Expeditions: Olduvai Gorge, Bombe National Park, Tanzania to study wild chimpanzees; Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro crater to study hyenas and wild dogs.

Biography

Jane Goodall is the world's foremost authority on chimpanzees, having closely observed their behavior for the past quarter century in the jungles of the Gombe Game Reserve in Africa, living in the chimps' environment and gaining their confidence. Her observations and discoveries are intemationally heralded. Her research and writing have made, and are making, revolutionary inroads into scientific thinking regarding the evolution of humans. Dr. Goodall received her Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1965. She has been the Scientific Director of the Gombe Stream Research Center since 1967. In 1984, Jane Goodall received the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize for "helping millions of people understand the importance of wildlife conservation to life on this planet." Her other awards and international recognitions fill pages. Her scientific articles have appeared in many issues of National Geographic, as well as multiple additional internationally known scientific journals. Dr. Goodall has also written two books, "Wild Chimpanzees" and "In The Shadow of Man." She pleads to thousands of people throughout the world on behalf of her career-long sponsor, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation. Jane Goodall attributes her dedication and insight to her work and her mission in life to her mother, internationally known author Vanne Goodall. In 1985, Jane Goodall's twenty-five years of anthropological and conservation research was published, helping us all to better understand the relationship between all creatures. She has now devoted over thirty years to her mission. Dr. Goodall has expanded her global outreach with the founding of the Jane Goodall Institute based in Ridgefield, CT. She now teaches and encourages young people to appreciate the conversation of chimpanzees and all creatures great and small.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Paper, pencil and binoculars

Heroes: Prof. Muhammad Yunus, inventor of the conept of microcredit; Dr. Rick Asselta, Wheelchair athlete, cancer survivor and coordinator of JGI's Roots & Shoots university programs; Dr. Fred Mednick, Founder of Teachers Without Borders; and Mr. Percy Schmeiser, Canadian farmer and farmers' rights activist.

""For every problem there is a solution, if only we know where to look."" — Grace J. Gobbo

Botanist

Born: 1974-01-01

Hometown: Tabora, Tanzania

Education: Certificate of Botany

Achievements

Discoveries: Plants, newly found, that have not been known to science; and plants that may help in fighting AIDS

Expeditions: Botanical and Lemur projects in Madagascar; Botanical surveys in East Africa; Chimp survey in Mahale Mountains, Tanzania

Biography

Working with the Greater Gombe Ecosystem Project of The Jane Goodall Institute, ethnobotanist Grace Gobbo studies traditional medicine practices in Tanzania. She gathers invaluable information from traditional healers about their use of medicinal plants – helping to inform government, communities and others on her botanical findings for future planning purposes. Prior to her current post with the Ecosystem Project, Gobbo studied plant species, collected ethno-botanical data, and gathered phenology for primate food in Gombe National Park.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Camera, notebook, pencil

Heroes: Dr. Jane Goodall, foremost authority on chimpanzees

"For your research, let your curiosity drive you, and for your personal life, don't rush to compromise on what you want, because you may be able to get it all." — Susan Aline Dudley

Associate Professor in Biology doing research in plant evolutionary ecology

Born: 1958-01-01

Hometown: Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA

Education: PhD in Ecology and Evolution

Achievements

Discoveries: Plant kin recognition. My research in how plants change their shape and biomass allocation in the presence of other plants led to asking whether the relatedness of those plants matters in the response

Expeditions: North America, in subarctic lichen woodland, eastern deciduous forest, alpine, Southwestern cold desert, and Great Lakes beaches

Biography

As an evolutionary ecologist, Susan Dudley is interested in how plants adapt to differing environments. Her particular interest is in plant traits that affect biomass acquisition. This interest has led her most recently to ask if plants could recognize their kin, by measuring how plant traits are affected by growing with relatives compared to strangers of the same species. Dudley did her Bachelor and Master’s degrees at McGill University, her Ph.D. at University of Chicago, was a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University, and has been employed at McMaster University first as an assistant professor and now as an associate professor. In her Master's, she studied physiological ecology of subarctic lichens. For Dudley's Ph.D., she brought together physiological ecology and evolution to measure natural selection on plant physiological traits in the field and genetic differentiation in the greenhouse for a species of plant that grows on Great Lake beaches. Her postdoctoral research in the deciduous forest examined adaptation to a different kind of environment, that resulting from the presence of other plants. It was well known that plants sense neighbors from the color of the light, and respond with elongated stems, but her team was able to show that in the natural environment, this response was adaptive. In her research at McMaster, her lab has further explored plant responses to other plants and to the abiotic environment. The main finding from the lab over the last six years is that plants recognize relatives in competition. For animals, the ability to recognize relatives is recognized as an important for the evolution of altruism and social interactions, but this is the first time kin recognition was found in plant competition. She has now found kin recognition in four species of plants, and three papers have been published. These revolutionary results change how competition among plants can be viewed.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: If I bring a Swiss army knife, I will use it on something

Heroes: My postdoctoral supervisor, Annie Schmitt, who successfully combines excellence in research with being a fine and warm human being

Publications

http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/biology/faculty/dudley/dudley_publication...

"Look for and share goodness, and the world will be a better place. A stumbling block can actually be a steppingstone depending on the choices you make." — Rosemarie Keough

Photographer and Private-press Publisher

Born: 1959-07-09

Hometown: Salt Spring Island, CANADA

Education: HBA in Business Administration

Achievements

Discoveries: The Keough's years of exploration with discoveries of karst features in Canada’s Nahanni, were shared through their photographic book, movie and a park proposal. These 1980s efforts inspired others. In 2009 Nahanni National Park was expanded from 4,800 km2 to over 30,000.

Expeditions: Antarctica and peri-Antarctic Islands; Arctic and sub-Arctic; deserts of Israel, Egypt, and California; the Pacific Northwest's Inside Passage; Sable Island; and many other unique places in Canada and the world.

Biography

Rosemarie Keough, born in London Canada, graduated with an Honours degree in Business Administration and worked three-years as a finance manager while spending all her spare time leading canoeing, hiking, and skiing expeditions with camera in hand. Fate intervened when she shared a month-long canoeing journey down the South Nahanni River with Pat Keough. Within six weeks was she was engaged and soon thereafter married. Together the couple embarked upon new careers in photography, television, exploration, and publishing. During the past 25 years Rosemarie and Pat have released seven art books exclusively portraying their imagery, and as well have produced or appeared in several television specials. The focus of her camera is natural and human heritage. Her explorations have taken her to Antarctica, the Canadian and Russian arctic, Nova Scotia and Sable Island, the Nahanni, the Chilcotin, Israel, Egypt, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and Japan. The Keoughs and their photography have been featured in reviews, covers, and in-depth articles in numerous periodicals worldwide including Time, Forbes, and Smithsonian. Their latest tome ANTARCTICA is acclaimed by critics and curators to be among the finest art books of the modern era. Rosemarie and Pat are currently working on a monumental volume in celebration of The Inside Passage. Rosemarie is a Fellow and Director-at-Large, British Columbia/Yukon for The Explorers Club, and from 2004-2009, Regional Chair of The Explorers Club British Columbia/Yukon. In 2008 she was honoured by the Canadian Chapter of The Explorers Club to be the first recipient of the Steffansson Award and Medal for her contributions to the club and her photography of Antarctica. Together with Pat, she shares the Cherry Kearton Medal bestowed by the Royal Geographical Society of Britain. She is also founder of the annual Salt Spring Island Folk Dance Festival and she is mother of two fine young people, Rebekka Dawn and Glen.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Camera and good footwear

Heroes: Bill Anders, Apollo 8, whose image "Earthrise"-- together with Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" --focused attention on environmental concerns.

Publications

Books: Antarctica. The Nahanni Portfolio. The Niagara Escarpment: A Portfolio. Wild and Beautiful Sable Island.
Films: "The Nahanni" and "Rebekka Dawn"

"Live in a state of gratitude for this sweet world, and you will drink from a well of happiness." — Janine Benyus

Natural sciences author, biologist, founder of the Biomimicry Guild.

Born: 1958-01-01

Hometown: New York, NY

Education: BA English Literature and BS Natural Resource Management

Achievements

Expeditions: I'm on expedition every time I step outdoors.

Biography

Janine Benyus is a natural sciences writer, and author of six books, including Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. She has cultivated a deep knowledge of the natural world, beginning with direct observation in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, continuing in habitats from Maine to West Virginia where she worked as a backcountry guide, and now, at home in Montana.  Janine graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers University, New Jersey, with two degrees in Natural Resource Management and English Literature/Writing. Her writing career began in the early eighties, when she translated “science-speak” for several research labs including the world’s largest forest research organization. An abiding interest in community ecology led to her first popular book Northwoods Wildlife: a Watcher’s Guide to Habitats (1989), an ecosystem-organized guide to northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. She followed with a national series: The Field Guide to Wildlife Habitats, Eastern and Western Editions(1989), which have become standards in their genre. In an effort to reach a larger audience of wildlife enthusiasts, Janine wrote an interpretive guide to animal behavior called Beastly Behaviors: A Guide to How Animals Act and Why (1992). In her next book, Janine coined the term Biomimicry (1997) to describe the emerging field of bio-inspired innovation. David Perlman of San Francisco Chronicle called Biomimicry “one viable answer to the wake-up call that Rachel Carson sounded a generation ago in Silent Spring.''

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: A pocket episcope that transforms from microscope to telescope.

Heroes: Rachel Carson, founder of the modern environmental movement.

"Believe that you can do anything you set your mind to. Your passion should be your path and your path should be your passion." — Rosita Arvigo

View Photo Gallery

Ethnobotanist, Traditional Healer, Teacher, Author

Born: 1941-01-01

Hometown: Chicago, IL

Education: Doctor of Naprapathy

Achievements

Discoveries: Several previously unknown plants once used by the ancient Mayan people.

Expeditions: More than 200 expeditions in the jungles of Central America.

Biography

Dr. Rosita Arvigo was born in the early 1940's on the north side of Chicago.  She earned her degree in Naprapathy from The Chicago College of Naprapathy in 1981, graduating with high honors.  In addition to her work as a naprapathic physician, Dr. Arvigo is a master herbalist with over 20 years of field and laboratory research experience.  In 1981, Dr. Arvigo moved to Belize to practice natural medicine and learn more about the countries healing plants.  There, she studied and learned from  dozens of traditional healers and midwives, the most notable of whom was Don Elijio Panti, the renowned Maya shaman of Belize.  As Don Elijio's students, she also mastered the spiritual healing practices that are an integral part of traditional Mayan medicine. Today, Dr. Arvigo is a recognized authority on Maya healing techniques and medicinal plants, and has been teaching these techniques in the United States and Europe for over ten years.  She has been on more that 200 expeditions into the jungles of Central America to discover plants once used by ancient Mayan people and bring them to the world.  She is the founder and director of Ix Chel Tropical Research Foundation in San Ignacio, Belize, an organization dedicated to the preservation and study of medicinal rainforest plants and founder and President of The Traditional Healers' Foundation in Belize, which works to support traditional healers.  Additionally, Dr. Arvigo worked for nine years with Dr. Michael Balick of The New York Botanical Garden to collect medicinal plants for research at The National Cancer Institute. Dr. Arvigo maintains her private healing practice in Belize and spends most of her time teaching The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Massage in Belize, the United States and around the world.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Compass, magnifying glass, good shoes, hat, and vest...good machettee.

Heroes: Elijio Panti, Maya shaman

Publications

SPIRITUAL BATHING: Healing Rituals & Traditions from Around the World; with Nadine Epstein (Ten Speed Press, 2003)
SASTUN: My Apprenticeship With a Maya Healer (Harper Collins, 1994)
RAINFOREST REMEDIES: 100 Healing Plants of Belize; with Michael Balick (Lotus Press, 1994)
RAINFOREST HOME REMEDIES: The Maya Way to Heal Your Body and Replenish Your Soul; with Nadine Epstein (Harper Collins, 2001)

"Be happy!" — Isabella A. Abbot

Retired University Professor

Born: 1919-01-01

Hometown: Hana, Maui Island, Hawaiian Islands

Education: PhD in Botany

Achievements

Discoveries: Discovering the world of marine algae.

Expeditions: To the Pacific and Caribbean Islands

Biography

PhD, Botany, Marine Botanist. Led expeditions to the Pacific and Caribbean discovering the world of marine algae.

Internationally recognized botanist, Dr. Isabella Abbott has made important contributions toward the understanding of marine algae in the Pacific, the unique species of plants in the Hawaiian Islands, and uses of those plants in traditional Hawaiian and Polynesian cultures. Based in Honolulu, Dr. Abbott serves as the Wilder Professor of Botany at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She has authored more than 100 books and papers, specializing in research on red algae and classifying marine algae throughout the eastern and central Pacific. As an expert on herbal healing in the Pacific, she has helped encourage greater recognition of the pharmacological properties of traditional Hawaiian herbs.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Chisel, snorkel, plastic bags

Heroes: My husband, Donald Putnam Abbot

Publications

Marine Algae of California

Marine Red Algae of the Hawaiian Islands 

Limu:  An Ethnobotanical Study of Some Hawaiian Seaweeds

Marine Green and Brown Algae of the Hawaiian Islands

Taxonomy of Economic Seaweeds With Reference To Some Pacific and Caribbean Species

How to Know the Seaweeds

Trading Card

"Apply the virtue of simplicity." — Diana Beresford-Kroeger

Scientist, Author

Born: 1944-07-25

Hometown: Merrickville, Ontario, Canada

Education: Botany, Medical Biochemistry, Organic and Nuclear Chemistry, Surgery

Achievements

Discoveries: Cathodoluminescence under electron bombardment

Expeditions: Botanical Explorations in Europe and North America

Biography

Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a botanist, medical and agricultural researcher, lecturer, and self-defined "renegade scientist" in the fields of classical botany, medical biochemistry, organic chemistry, and nuclear chemistry.  She lives in Ontario, Canada.  Beresford-Kroeger is a native of Ireland who has bachelor's degrees in medical biochemistry and botany, and has worked as a Ph.D.-level researcher at the University of Ottawa school of medicine, where she published several papers on the chemistry of artificial blood.  She calles herself a renegade scientist, however, because she tries to bring together aborigiional healing, Western medicine, and botany to advocate an unusual role for trees.  

(Bio from UMich Press)

Diana Discusses Climate Change 

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Good tea, lens, scalpel, collecting bags, folding shovel

Heroes: Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Publications

Arboretum Borealis: A Lifeline of the Planet [Paperback]
Diana Beresford-Kroeger (Author)
Product Details

Paperback: 168 pages
Publisher: University of Michigan Press/Regional (October 4, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0472051148
ISBN-13: 978-0472051144

The Global Forest [Hardcover]

Diana Beresford-Kroeger (Author)
Product Details

Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult (May 13, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0670021741
ISBN-13: 978-0670021741

Arboretum America: A Philosophy of the Forest [Paperback]

Diana Beresford-Kroeger (Author)
Paperback: 214 pages
Publisher: University of Michigan Press/Regional (October 3, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0472068512
ISBN-13: 978-0472068517