Current Position
Associate Professor
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Research interests
phylogeny and evolution of land plants, plant mitochondrial genome evolution

Service – BSA
Member of Karlin Award Committee, 2000

Service – Others
American Society of Plant Taxonomists, 2004-7, Member and Chair of Publicity Committee
National Science Foundation, 2014, Panelist
Journal of Systematics and Evolution (2007 – 2013, Co-Editor-in-Chief)
Journal of Molecular Evolution (2009 – 2012, Editorial Board)
BMC Plant Biology (2009 – 2012, Editorial Board)
International Journal of Plant Sciences (2000 – 2009, Editorial Board)

Statement of Interest (running for an At-large Director of the Board)
I have long been interested in and concerned about well-being and prosperity of botany. The current focus on translational sciences by national funding agencies especially worries me. Merging botany and zoology into biology decades ago and then subsequent splitting into ecology and evolutionary biology versus molecular, cellular and developmental biology have actually accelerated decline of plant organismal and evolutionary biology. While university administration and national funding agencies play critical roles in shaping structural organization of all academic botany programs in the United States, BSA along with our sister societies such as ASPT, ASPB and ESA can provide strategic guidelines to the university administrators and national funding agencies. The goal is to ensure that plant sciences have a robust presence in all life science programs on American college campuses, from research universities, liberal arts colleges, land grant institutions, to other teaching-oriented colleges, so that our citizens will always be plant-literate. Thus, I am hoping to help to contribute to this mission/cause if I am elected.