BiographyA colleague of mine has the idea that most field-oriented biologists have always been biologists whereas lab-oriented folks have largely come to their interests later in life. I am definitely of the former sort, having planted seeds and studied animals for as long as I can remember. My interests, however, took a detour in college when I was a premed (at least briefly). I think this happens to many naive students who are good at science and math but are not from professional families (and have found no other sources of good advice). As a college student, I had no idea what graduate school was, what one had to do to get a Ph.D., what one could do with a Ph.D., etc., etc. In any event, having escaped the premed route, I went on to graduate school at Duke. While there, I contracted a rather severe--and on-going--case of tropical attraction, and the vast majority of my work has focused on tropical plants (and the animals that pollinate their flowers). I worked mostly in Mexico and Central America during my graduate days. During my graduate school days, in the category of 'most interesting things I've ever done:'
 After finishing graduate school, I was lucky enough to be chosen for a postdoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. I lived in Gamboa and worked in Parque Nacional Soberanía (the former Canal Zone) mostly on plant-hummingbird projects. It was a great experience!
Back at Duke for personal reasons, I taught a big (by Duke standards) course in environmental science for non-majors. One of the most challenging things I've ever done, this was also one of the most interesting. I learned an incredible amount about teaching, about various key environmental issues, about how undergrads learn, about making up exams, etc. etc. Three years later, I went to work for the Organization for Tropical Studies as the staff member in charge of all of OTS' field courses. I was responsible for working with others to secure funding (as in many, many proposals to many, many foundations), and for supervising all aspects of course implementation and evaluation. I was based at the Durham, North Carolina office of OTS, but traveled to Costa Rica a great deal. During my OTS days, in the category of 'most interesting things I've ever done:'
 I loved my work at OTS, but missed teaching, research, and working directly with students. Thus in 1992, I moved to the University of Arizona as an assistant professor and curator of the herbarium, in the Departments of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, and Plant Sciences. Southern Arizona was a fascinating place to live: with habitats close at hand ranging from Sonoran desert to spruce- fir forest, there is always something to do /learn about outdoors. There, I got involved in a number of local research projects, including work on genetic and morphological differentiation among Sky Island plant populations. I was also able to launch what has developed into an exciting research endeavor: bringing molecular sequence data to bear on problems of phylogenetic relationships in my favorite group of plants, Acanthaceae. I was extremely proud to be associated with the herbarium http://eebweb.arizona.edu/herb/ at the U. of A. It is a great institution with an extremely active user community and a very important collection of vascular plants. During my Arizona days, in the category of 'most interesting things I've ever done:'
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I taught systematic botany to a couple hundred wonderful students. In so-doing, I learned a great deal about the flora of southern Arizona, kept current on our rapidly developing knowledge of phylogenetic relationships among plants, and developed a very profound respect for students at the University of Arizona.