From Plant Press, Vol. 12, No. 3 from July 2009.
From March through April 2009, German Muttoni worked as a volunteer in the Botany Department with Vicki Funk’s research group. He began by helping Mauricio Bonifacino on the data review and entry for the “Virtual key to the Compositae species of the USA” effort, a project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. When Bonifacino returned to Uruguay, Muttoni switched to organizing mounted specimens of Compositae sent from the herbarium at the National Botanical Research Institute, Windhoek, Namibia. This large gift of mounted specimens is now in order by tribe and genus and is ready to file. He also worked with Sara Alexander to update the online information on herbarium specimens collected from the Guiana Shield of South America. Muttoni reports that he enjoyed being a part of the Smithsonian Institution because he thinks “...the increase and diffusion of knowledge...” is a great mission. Funk says that Muttoni did about 300 hours of volunteer work and made a big contribution to all three projects. He has returned to his home in Montevideo, Uruguay, but will be back in the U.S. soon to start graduate school at the University of Wisconsin.
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