Current News and Events

This page is dedicated to news concerning our graduate program, including information about field/site trips, awards and grants, attendance to professional meetings, publications, and other exciting developments happening here.

September 2011

Graduate Course on Plant Molecular Systematics

This Fall Semester Dr. Brett Jestrow and Dr. Javier Francisco-Ortega are teaching a graduate course in Plant Molecular Systematics.  The course has a lecture component covering principles of molecular systematics and the main phylogenetic methods and a laboratory component focusing on protocols for DNA isolation, PCR, sequencing, and cloning. A total of si students are taking this course
   

FTBG Welcomes Graduate Students enroll in joint program with FIU and UM

On September 17 Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden arranged a reception to students conducting their Master and Ph.D. studies at Florida International University or University of Miami in association with Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. This year we have eight new graduate students. Five of them (Beyte Barrios, Jason Downing, Patricia Houle, Wyatt Sharber, and Emily Warschefsky) are enrolled in Ph.D. programs. Three of the students (Andrew Jungman, Vanessa Sanchez, and Klara Scharnagl) are seeking Master degrees. Our students are enrolled in the graduate programs of the Department of Education of FIU, the Department of Biological Sciences of FIU, the Department of Earth and the Environment of FIU, or the Department of Biology of UM.

During the event Prof. Suzanne Koptur from FIU-Biology delivered a talk about her research on plant-animal interaction in the tropics and the importance of graduate education in career development.

 
 

Top right image: Graduate students, Fairchild scientists, and FIU faculty who attented the event.

Bottom right image: Prof. Suzanne Koptur delivering her talk.


May 2011

FIU/FTBG Graduate Student Receives Grant from Florida Native Plant Society

• FIU/FTBG graduate student Tonya Fotinos (Von Wettberg lab) was recently awarded a Florida Native Plant Society conservation grant for her research on the genetic diversity in the federally endangered Keys Tree Cactus, Pilosocereus robinii.  Populations from the Florida Keys have experienced a more than 80% decline in population in the past decade through habitat loss and environmental change. This grant will provide the laboratory supplies to develop molecular markers to determine whether remaining populations are reproducing sexually, and help identify good candidate populations for the on-going reintroduction efforts.

•  FIU/FTBG graduate student Evan Rehm (Feeley lab) will spend May 2011 initiating his dissertation research project in the Andean highlands of southern Peru.  Specifically he will be working with local collaborators to establish longt erm vegetation and seed dispersal monitoring plots at the ecotone between montane cloud forest and puna grasslands.  Evan will leave Peru in June and July in order to attend the Organization for Tropical Studies course in Tropical Ecology at Costa Rica. Evan will return to Peru briefly in August in order to complete the summer field season of work before returning to FIU for the fall semester.

 

•  FIU/FTBG graduate student Catherine Bravo (Feeley lab) will spend May – August in her home country of Peru in order research patterns of carbon allocation in cloudforest plant species.  This research will help inform our understandings of the impacts of global climate change on carbon sequestration in tropical forests and will form the foundation of Catherine’s thesis project.

 
•  FIU/FTBG graduate student Brian Machovia (Feeley lab) will remain in Miami over the summer in order to focus on his dissertation research investigating patterns of land conversion for Banana production in Central and South America.  This research will be conducted primarily through the analysis of time series of remotely-sensed data (e.g., satellite and aerial images) combined with environmental data layers (e.g., temperature, precipitation, soil type, and topography), supplemented with field based data to be collected in the future. Bananas are one of the most widespread an important of all tropical crops yet their impact on the environment remains woefully understudied.


April 2011


                                Graduate Cytotaxonomy Workshop

•  Prof. Andrew Vovides, Curator of the Botanic Garden of Xalapa and Researcher of the prestigious Instituto de Ecologia, Mexico visited us between April 7 and 18. During this visit Prof. Vovides taught a FIU graduate workshop in Cytotaxonomy.  Prof. Vovides is an authority in cycad biology and botanic garden management. His research focuses primarily on plant cytology, anatomy, histology, and systematics. In 1989-90 he was the first post-doctoral fellow supported by the Montgomery Botanical Center. Then he conducted his studies on cycad anatomy under the guidance of Fairchild scientist Dr. Knut Norstog. It is for us a privilege to have him back at Miami to train the new generation of tropical botanists. This visit has been jointly sponsored by the Department of Biological Sciences of FIU, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, and Montgomery Botanical Center. A total of seven students took this workshop. Image on the right shows Prof. Vovides and the seven students who took this workshop.



March 2011

  • FIU/FTBG graduate Tonya Fotinos was recently awarded an NIH funded MBRS-RISE fellowship administered by FIU for her research on genetic diversity in the federally endangered Keys Tree Cactus, Pilosocereus robinii.  This fellowship will support Tonya for the next two years as she develops molecular markers to determine whether remaining populations are reproducing sexually, and help identify good candidate populations for on-going reintroduction efforts.

February 2011

  • FIU/FTBG graduate students Catherine Bravo and Evan Rehm have been awarded Tinker Field Research Grants from the Latin American and Caribbean Center at FIU to help support their upcoming field research in the Peruvian Andes.  Catherine Bravo was also awarded a research grant from the Sigma-Xi Scientific Research Society.

January 2011

  • The FIU Biology Symposium will be held on Saturday, January 29th at the Marine Biology Building in the Biscayne Bay Campus (between 9:00 AM-5:00 PM). The Biology Research Symposium is a celebration of research conducted by students in the biological sciences at FIU. The purpose of the Symposium is to allow students to present their projects, proposals, and results in a friendly, professional atmosphere. At the same time, the entire FIU-Fairchild research/education community benefits as we become familiar with the work of others. Graduate and undergraduate students are allocated oral presentation and poster slots. All faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate, and undergraduate students are encouraged to register and attend.  After the Symposium everybody is invited to a party at the house of Mo Donnelly-Steve Oberbauer. The FIU-Biology Office Manager Wilma Dagdag-Vega is working on updating the Biology Symposium web page and it will be available soon. It will have a link to a registration form. You must register to be eligible to attend, present a paper or poster. Only a limited number of oral presentations are available (20) and will be selected on a first come first serve basis (determined by the time you register). A maximum of 20 poster boards are available.

November 2010

  • Congratulations to Dr. Brett Jestrow who successfully defended his Ph.D. Dissertation on November 12, 2010 at the Department of Biological Sciences of Florida International University.  Brett is the fifth Ph.D. student who has obtained his degree with us.  For his dissertation Brett used molecular markers to understand phylogenetic relationships within three plant genera endemic in the Caribbean Islands.  His dissertation was entitled: “Phylogenetics, Conservation, and Historical Biogeography of the West Indian endemic genera of the Adelieae (Euphorbiaceae)”.  From his Dissertation Brett has published one paper, has an additional manuscript in press, and a third one has been recently submitted. He is also being involved in two additional research projects concerning phylogenetics of the tribe palm Ptychosperminae, and a review study on molecular systematics of endangered species endemic in the Caribbean Islands.

October 2010

  • On Oct 18, 2010, UM-FTBG graduate student Robert McElderry successfully defended his doctoral dissertation proposal entitled, “Evolutionary ecology of host association and fire ecology for a widespread and an endemic butterfly.”  He is now an official Ph.D. candidate at University of Miami.  Congratulations to Robert!!
  • Nora Oleas will be delivering two talks at the "X Congreso Latinoamericano de Botanica" that will take place at La Serena, Chile (October 4th - 10th). The two talks will be part of a symposium on "ADN y la conservación de la diversidad vegetal en América Latina."  The first talk will focus on conservation genetics of species of Phaedranassa (Amaryllidaceae).  The second one will provide a review of phylogenetic patterns of endangered species from the Caribbean Islands.  Nora's participation is being jointly sponsored by the Department of Biological Sciences of FIU, the Graduate Student Funding Committee of FIU, the College of Arts and Sciences of FIU, and the Caribbean Program of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

September 2010

  • On Saturday September 11th Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden had a reception to the graduate students from FIU and UM who are conducting their research at the Garden. Prof. Brad Bennett from FIU-Biology delivered an introductory talk about the importance of botanic gardens in graduate education.  An image of the graduate students and their advisors taken during this event is show on the left. From left to right: Nora Oleas, Dr. Javier Francisco-Ortega, Brett Jestrow, Brian Machovina, Evan Rehm, Dr. Kenneth Feeley, Tonya Fotinos, Dr. Eric von Wettberg, Catherine Bravo, Jason Downing, Wuying Lin, Dr. Joyce Maschinski, Dr. Hong Liu, Prof. Carol Horvitz, and Robert McElderry.

 

August 2010
 

 

Updated November/2/2011