Arboretum Scientists | Visiting Scientists | DaRin Butz Interns | Research Interns | Putnam Fellows | Global Change Fellows |Arboretum Award Recipients | Alumni | Research Publications
Arboretum Scientists
With state-of-the-art research and growth facilities nestled alongside over 16,000 living specimens (2,100 species), the Arnold Arboretum is uniquely positioned to ask broad and important questions in plant biology. Our scientists’ research is as diverse as our living collection, ranging from organismic and evolutionary biology, molecular and developmental biology, plant physiology, and ecological, environmental and biodiversity studies. Emphasizing our close relationship to the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (OEB), many of our scientists have dual appointments in OEB and the Arboretum.
Faculty Fellows of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University contribute significantly to one or more of five areas central to the mission of the Arnold Arboretum: 1) Leading or collaborating on research based at the Arboretum, 2) Mentoring students and postdoctoral fellows based at the Arboretum, 3) Teaching Harvard courses based at the Arboretum, 4) Providing input on living or archival collections and landscape management, and 5) Creating outreach programs to share science and other scholarship with the public at the Arboretum.
Izzy Acevedo
Research Assistant, OEB, Hopkins Lab
Izzy Acevedo is a research assistant currently studying evolution and reinforcement in Texas wildflowers, though interested in life of all shapes and sizes. Izzy can usually be found in the research greenhouses, caring for Phlox as the Hopkins Lab investigate its flowering characteristics and mating systems. Izzy is passionate about environmental storytelling, visual art, and other creative forms of scientific communication.
Andrea Berardi
Research Associate, OEB, Hopkins Lab
Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Andrea Berardi is a research associate in the Hopkins Lab broadly interested in the processes of adaptation and speciation, with a particular focus on the role floral color in creating reproductive barriers. She is currently working on a project to understand the evolution of red flower color in North American Silene species, specifically whether access to hummingbird pollinators and/or polyploidy events played the biggest roles.
Carina Berlingeri
Graduate Student, OEB, Taylor Lab
Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Carina Berlingeri is a graduate student in the Taylor lab. She is engaged in several projects studying how different global change drivers (nutrient pollution, disturbance, and rising CO2) alter belowground symbioses and plant resource-acquisition strategies.
Bridget Bickner
Graduate Student, OEB, Hopkins Lab
Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Bridget Bickner is a graduate student in the Hopkins lab.
Alaina Bisson
Research Assistant, OEB, Taylor Lab
Grace Burgin
Graduate Student, MSO, Hopkins Lab
Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Grace Burgin is a graduate student in the Hopkins lab.
Andrew Cameron
Research Assistant, OEB, Hopkins Lab
Nikhil Chari
Graduate Student, OEB, Taylor Lab
Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Nikhil Chari, graduate student in the Taylor lab, is a biogeochemist interested in carbon and nutrient cycling governing terrestrial ecosystems. His focus is currently on the effects of elevated CO2 on root-soil interactions and soil carbon dynamics.
Peter Del Tredici
Senior Research Scientist Emeritus
Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
The research interests of Peter Del Tredici are wide ranging and mainly involve the interaction between woody plants and their environment. Recently, his investigations have expanded to include studies of spontaneous urban vegetation.
Michael Dosmann
Keeper of Living Collections
Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Michael Dosmann, keeper of living collections, guides the Arboretum’s stewardship and development of its collection of temperate woody species. His work explores new strategies and tactics aimed at improving collections management and enhancing the use of Arboretum collections for research. Additionally, he conducts research on the physiological ecology of woody plants and participates in floristic efforts through domestic and foreign plant exploration.
Daniel Faccini
Graduate Student, OEB, Friedman Lab
Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Daniel is a graduate student in the Friedman lab. Fascinated with the morphological evolution of plants, he is interested in studying plants from an organismal perspective, integrating the developmental, morphological, biogeographical, and ecological patterns to understand how the extraordinary diversity of plant forms has come to be. His research focuses on plant genera of the Canary Islands.
James Fortin
Research Assistant, Friedman Lab and Weld Hill Labs
Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
James Fortin started at the Arboretum as a DaRin Butz intern (’22), where he studied the morphology and development of pores on the gametophytes of hornworts (Anthocerotae). While continuing this research, he is also currently investigating potential interparental genetic conflict and imprinting in Illicium parviflorum, a relative of star anise and member of a clade basal to most flowering plants.
William (Ned) Friedman
Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Director of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Faculty Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Ned Friedman is interested in the organismic interfaces between developmental, phylogenetic, and evolutionary biology. The Friedman lab explores how patterns of morphology, anatomy, and reproductive biology have evolved through the modification of developmental processes.
Calvin Heslop
Graduate Student, OEB, Taylor Lab
Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Calvin Heslop is a graduate student in the Taylor lab. He is an ecosystem ecologist interested in the biotic and abiotic controls on nutrient cycling in terrestrial environments. His research focuses on how the N fixing shrub Siberian alder influences community composition, N cycling, and C balance in arctic Alaska.
N. Michele Holbrook
Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Charles Bullard Professor of Forestry
Faculty Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
The Holbrook lab focuses on how the transport of water and solutes through the vascular system influences ecological, evolutionary and physiological processes.
Robin Hopkins
Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Faculty Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Robin Hopkins is interested in natural selection and the process of speciation. The Hopkins lab studies color variation in Phlox with a growing focus on reproductive incompatibility between emerging species and understanding the key evolutionary forces at work.
Elena Kramer
Bussey Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Harvard College Professor
Faculty Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Patrick McKenzie
Postdoctoral Fellow, OEB, Hopkins Lab
Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Cecilia (Ceci) Prada Cordero
Postdoctoral Fellow, OEB, Taylor Lab
Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Cecilia Prada Cordero is a postdoctoral fellow in the Taylor lab. Ceci focuses on the influence of abiotic and biotic factors on tree species composition, distribution, and biogeochemical processes, with a specific emphasis on filling research gaps in soil-plant-fungi interactions in tropical forests.
Faye Rosin
Director of Research Facilitation
Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
The research interests of Faye Rosin bear on investigating how gene expression is regulated and the consequences of that regulation at the molecular, cellular, and developmental levels.
Valeria Schmidt
Graduate Student, OEB, Hopkins Lab
Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Val joined the Extavour lab through the OEB graduate training program with an interest in understanding how the immediate abiotic environment and biotic interactions drive an organism’s phenotype, ecological patterning, and evolutionary processes through the interaction of genetics, and epigenetics. After starting her PhD in the Extavour lab based on her initial interest in incorporating developmental biology into her view of evolution, she soon realized that her interests lay more in adaptation and speciation genomics. She thus transferred to the lab of Robin Hopkins, where she continues to pursue her PhD studies.
Christina Steinecke
Graduate Student, OEB, Hopkins Lab
Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Christina Steinecke is an evolutionary biologist broadly interested in major evolutionary transitions in plants and the conditions that produce them. More specifically, she is interested in identifying the unique forces that drive the enormous diversity in plant reproductive strategies. In the Hopkins lab, she is working to elucidate the causes and consequences of hybridization, polyploidy, and contrasting life history strategies in Texan Phlox species.
Benton Taylor
Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Faculty Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Benton Taylor focuses on how plants respond-to and influence their environments, particularly in view of global change. Although the primary focus of the Taylor lab is at the ecosystem scale, the research questions require viewing plants at individual as well as community scales toward a better understanding of the role of plants in global processes.
Felix Wu
Postdoctoral Fellow, OEB, Hopkins Lab
Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Felix Wu is broadly interested in understanding the mechanistic basis of evolutionary processes—in particular, mutation and speciation—as well as the differential impact of these processes across the tree of life. In the Hopkins lab, he is researching the history of hybridization between three species of Texas annual Phlox and developing genomic tools to help us answer these questions.
Arboretum Scientists | Visiting Scientists | DaRin Butz Interns | Research Interns | Putnam Fellows | Global Change Fellows |Arboretum Award Recipients | Alumni | Research Publications
Our Visiting and Associated Scientists
In addition to our staff scientists, the Arnold Arboretum shares its resources, the state-of-the-art research facilities, living collection, herbarium, plant records, library and archives, with scholars at Harvard and around the world. Formally-affiliated scientists are introduced below, but we open up our resources to an extensive network of researchers for a diverse range of research projects and offer fellowships, awards and internships. Learn more about requesting research access to the Arboretum living collections, research facilities, or library.
Dave Boufford
Senior Research Scientist, Harvard University Herbaria
Associate, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Dave Boufford has been leading exhibitions to Asia since 1977. Along with several colleagues, he is undertaking a survey of the plant and fungal diversity of the Hengduan Mountain region in southwestern China, one of the world’s hotspots of biodiversity. His expeditions in unexplored and underexplored regions complement collections made in the first half of the twentieth century by Joseph Rock, TT Yü, C. W. Wang, R. C. Ching, and others.
Anthony Brach
Research Associate, Harvard University Herbaria
Associate, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Anthony R. Brach has a strong interest in the plants of Asia including their taxonomy, identification, and ecology. As an editor Missouri Botanical Garden and of the Flora of China Project, he is interested in exploring the digitization and creation of web-based floras and interactive identification keys.
David Des Marais
Assistant Professor, MIT
Visiting Scholar, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
The research of David Des Marais focuses on how plants interact with the environment and the variation in these interactions between species. Understanding how plants adapt to the local environment can increase our ability to conserve plant populations.
Pam Diggle
Professor and Department Head, University of Connecticut
Associate, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Ailene Ettinger
Quantiative Ecologist, The Nature Conservatory
2014 Putnam Fellow and Visiting Scholar, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Ailene Ettinger, former Arnold Arboretum Putnam Fellow, focuses on predicting the response and sensitivity of plants to a changing climate. By examining diverse trees growing in a common environment like the Arboretum, she can identify functional traits that are important for success outside their historical conditions.
Lorna Gibson
Professor, MIT
Associate, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
The research of Lorna Gibson is focused on the mechanics of materials with a cellular structure such as engineering honeycombs and foams, natural materials such as wood, leaves and bamboo and medical materials such as trabecular bone and tissue engineering scaffolds.
Lucy Hutyra
Associate Professor, Boston University
Associate, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Lucy Hutyra focuses on understanding the carbon cycle in an urban environment with research sites across Boston including the Arnold Arboretum. Lucy and Pam Templer collaborate with the Arnold Arboretum to set-up, operate, and analyze the data gathered from the Arboretum’s National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP site – MA98) at Weld Hill.
Elizabeth (Toby) Kellogg
Robert E. King Distinguished Investigator, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Associate, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
The research program of Elizabeth (Toby) Kellogg is focused on the evolutionary biology of important cereal crops and their relatives in the grass family. The goal is to understand and predict how the floral structure of wild species affects climate resilience in wild and cultivated species.
Erica Kirchhof
PhD Student, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Visiting Fellow, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
2021 DaRin Butz Research Intern
Erica Kirchhof is a Horticulture PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison working with Dr. Al Kovaleski in the Plant Resilience Lab. She is interested in understanding how the progression of dormancy and cold hardiness in temperate woody perennials relates to the timing of budbreak in the spring. She is collecting data related to dormancy and bud cold hardiness in several different deciduous and evergreen species throughout the eastern United States, with the overall goal of improving phenology predictions in temperate regions. Erica was a 2021 DaRin Butz Research Intern.
Jianhua Li
Associate Professor, Hope College
Associate, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Jianhua Li is a former Arnold Arboretum senior scientist and a Sargent Award Recipient. Jianhua focuses on the reconstruction of the early tree of life of Acer. The evolutionary relationships of this important and diverse tree genus has, thus far, remained largely unresolved hindering our understanding of the natural history of maples.
Morgan Moeglein
Assistant Professor, Norwich University
Putnam Fellow and Visiting Scholar, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Overwintering of leaf buds is a common strategy thought to allow plants to adapt to periodically stressful environments. Morgan Moeglein is developing a comparative framework for understanding fundamental questions of the timing and mechanisms of leaf preformation in buds, its contribution to seasonal growth, and the conservation of these strategies using closely related species in the Arboretum’s living collections.
Jessica Savage
Jewett Prize Recipient and Visiting Scholar, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Associate Professor, University of Minnesota, Duluth
Building on her work as a Putnam fellow, Jessica Savage will examine a diverse set of species in the Arboretum’s living collections to see how the anatomical diversity of phloem, the part of the vascular system responsible for sugar transport, may impact patterns of vegetative and reproductive growth.
Dan Sullivan
Sargent Award Recipient
Associate, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
I’m a retired molecular biologist, having spent most of the time since my PhD working for various biotech companies, including 10+ years at MJ Research making the best ever thermal cyclers. At the Arboretum, I’m getting back to my roots (B.S. Botany, 1966) by evaluating a number of things to facilitate molecular studies of the Arboretum’s collections. The major part of my work involves the establishment of an on-going collection of dried newly emerging leaves, which are an excellent year-round source of DNA, from the Arboretum’s highly curated accessions. I’m also preparing protocols for the efficient extraction of DNA from the DEL tissue.
As of 2022, this Dried Emerging Leaf (DEL) collection includes at least one example of about 30% of all assessed species in the Arboretum, and has been integrated into the Arboretum’s collections management system, BGBASE.
Jacob Suissa
Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Visiting Scholar, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Jacob Suissa is an evolutionary biologist focusing on Ferns and Lycophytes. He takes a broad scale macroevolutionary approach as well as a small scale physiological approach to answer interesting questions about fern evolution.
Pam Templer
Professor, Boston University
Associate, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
The work of Pamela Templer involves examining the effects of climate change and urbanization on forest ecosystems including numerous sites at the Arboretum. In addition, Pam and Lucy Hutyra collaborate with the Arnold Arboretum to set-up, operate, and analyze the data gathered from the Arboretum’s National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP site – MA98) at Weld Hill.
Megan Wilcots
Applied Climate Scientist, The Nature Conservancy
Visiting Scholar, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Megan Wilcots was the first Global Change Fellow from the Arnold Arboretum, a position she held jointly with the HUCE as an Environmental Fellow. As a Visiting Scholar, Megan works with Professor Ben Taylor to study how Arctic heatwaves alter nitrogen fixation and carbon uptake.
Elizabeth Wolkovich
Associate Professor, University of British Columbia, Canada
Visiting Scholar, OEB, Harvard University
Elizabeth Wolkovich is interested in how communities assemble and disassemble in light of global changes. The Wolkovich lab focuses on testing and understanding underlying mechanisms using both theoretical techniques and field experiments to study how current and future plant communities are shaped.
Arboretum Scientists | Visiting Scientists | DaRin Butz Interns | Research Interns | Putnam Fellows | Arboretum Award Recipients | Alumni | Research Publications
Research Interns and Trainees
Our research interns and trainees, primarily undergraduate students and recent graduates, gain valuable experience working in a research environment while working closely under the direction of our research scientists, including the Friedman lab, Hopkins lab, Taylor lab and Putnam Fellows. Our DaRin Butz Interns conduct research for 10 weeks in the summer as part of the DaRin Butz Foundation Research Internship Program at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.
- Anushka Bhagwat, undergraduate student, Northeastern University, Hopkins Lab
- Michael Fairly, undergraduate student, Harvard College, Taylor lab
- Nia Faith, undergraduate student, Harvard College, Hopkins lab
- Anya Ghai, undergraduate student, Northeastern University, Hopkins Lab
- Rohan Prabhu, undergraduate student, Hopkins lab
- Irene Ren, undergraduate student, Northeastern University, Hopkins Lab
- Luke Zehr, postgraduate student, Taylor Lab