From Plant Press, Vol. 4, No. 3 from July 2001.
David Erickson, NSF-funded postdoctoral fellow working with Elizabeth Zimmer at the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics (LMS) and Charles Fenster at the University of Maryland, is investigating QTL mapping in the legume Chamaecrista fasciculata. He hopes to use an experimental crossing design to elucidate the number and relative effects of genes that promote adaptation to different habitats.
Rachel A. Levin, a postdoctoral fellow working with Warren Wagner, Elizabeth Zimmer and Mellon fellows Peter Hoch, Jorge Crisci, and Ken Sytsma, is interested in using phylogenetic techniques to address questions about character evolution in plants, especially fragrance evolution. Levin plans to study phylogenetic relationships within Nyctaginaceae. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, Tucson, with Lucinda McDade as her advisor. Her dissertation research focused on the phylogenetic relationships among Southwestern species in the family Nyctaginaceae and the evolution of fragrance within this group of mainly hawkmoth-pollinated taxa.
There are two Botany participants in the Research Training Program this summer. Jeffery Saarela (jeff_saarela@hotmail.com) is from Manitou, Canada. He recently graduated from the University of Manitoba, and wrote an honors dissertation on the taxonomy of the Carex backii species complex. He is working with Paul Peterson on the taxonomy of Brachyelytrum erectum (Poaceae) in North America.
Also in the Research Training Program is Katarina Topalov (katia@ptt.yu), from Novi Sad, Serbia. She is currently a third year undergraduate at the University of Novi Sad, and is particularly interested in forest ecosystems and vegetation of the Fruska Gora Mountain near Novi Sad. Her research project is an evaluation of plant diversity on the Guiana Shield, under the guidance of Vicki Funk.