From Plant Press, Vol. 26, No. 3, July 2023.
A special issue of the International Journal of Plant Sciences just published (volume 184, number 5; 2023) honors Dr. Vicki Ann Funk (November 26, 1947–October 22, 2019), who passed away after a battle with an aggressive cancer. Vicki Funk was an inspirational evolutionary biologist and a champion for collections-based systematics and biogeography. She had broad influence on the way we perform our collections-based systematics today, especially with the development of phylogenetic systematics in botany in the early 1980s and throughout her career. Funk was one of the most active, enthusiastic, and passionate professional botanists of our time. She combined these qualities with a quick mind and glowing wit, with new ideas or opinions that she was eager to share with anyone who would listen, and be willing to enter an engaging dialogue.
During her distinguished career, Funk achieved preeminence in the fields of phylogenetic methods, systematics, biogeography, and biodiversity conservation. She devoted a significant part of her career to mentoring the next generation of botanists and working with groups to tackle larger areas of research, especially Compositae systematics, phylogenetics, and biogeography.
The special issue organized by Jennifer Mandel, Erika Moore-Pollard, Mauricio Bonifacino, Jun Wen, and Warren Wagner consists of eight papers on Compositae (Asteraceae) systematics by various colleagues, two more on collections for botanical systematics, and concludes with a tribute to her career and contributions by Wagner and Wen.
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