Doctoral student Alejandra Vasco collects ferns in the high mountains of Piedras Blancas in Venezuela.

Graduate Students

The Commodore Matthew Perry Graduate Studies Program provides advanced preparation and mastery of the field of plant diversity science for approximately 40 students annually who are working toward the Ph.D. degree. The Program operates in conjunction with the following six universities: Columbia University, Cornell University, Fordham University, Lehman College of the City University of New York, New York University, and Yale University.

Doctoral student Seth Ganzhorn inspects herbarium specimens at the Garden.

Responding to the accelerating rate of habitat destruction in the tropics, the Botanical Garden has placed a priority on tropical research and the training of more botanists, not only from the United States, but from other countries as well. The Program serves a diverse student body, and Garden graduates have come from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. After graduating, most foreign students return to their home countries to hold positions in government agencies, research centers, universities, and botanical gardens, where they have a direct impact on conservation, education, and biodiversity research.

Current Graduate Students

Name	E-Mail Address	Specialty	Research Locations	Other Expertise
Graduate Students
Aguirre, Julian	jaguirre@nybg.org	Plant systematics	Colombia
Allen, Jessica	jallen@nybg.org	Lichen systematics	North America
Craven, Dylan	dylan.craven@nybg.org	The physiological ecology of reforestation and its impact on secondary forest succession in the tropics.	Panama
Davoodian, Naveed	ndavoodian@nybg.org	Mycology
De Gezelle, Jillian	jdegezelle@nybg.org	Ethnobotany	Belize, Panama	Ethnomedicine, Tropical Ecology
Duguid, Marlyse	marlyse.duguid@gmail.com	Disturbance ecology	North America
Ganzhorn, Seth	ganzhorn@fordham.edu	Habitat fragmentation and genetic diversity of forest trees in Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil	Brazil
Hawken, Iona	iona.hawken@yale.edu	Urbanization, Land-Use, and Landscape Transformation in Amazonia	Amazonia
Hooper, Elaine	elaine.hooper@yale.edu	Effects of seed dispersal in tropical forest regeneration, and the use of multivariate analysis to characterize species interrelationships in highly diverse tropical ecosystems	Brazil
James, Thomas	thomas.james@yale.edu	Forest ecology	Mongolia
Keleman, Alder	Alder.keleman@yale.edu	Forestry and environmental studies
Kitalong, Christopher	ckitalong@nybg.org	Ethnobotany	Palau
Kriebel, Ricardo	rkriebel@nybg.org	Systematics of Melastomataceae	Neotropics
Kulakowski, Dan	mc9fish@msn.com	Plant chemistry
Lim, Gwynne	gsl47@cornell.edu	Plant Systematics	Southeast Asia
Matos, Fernando	fmatos@nybg.org	Fern systematics	Brazil
Offringa, Lisa	loffringa@nybg.org	Medicinal Plants of Northern Thailand to Improve Cognitive Impairment in the Elderly	Thailand	Ethnobotany, medicinal plants, phytochemistry
Osterhoudt, Sarah	sarah.osterhoudt@yale.edu	Globalism, environmental anthropology and the vanilla bean trade in Madagascar	Madagascar
Perez, William	wperez@nybg.org	Systematics of green algae	North America
Reginato, Marcelo	mreginato@nybg.org	Systematics of Melastomataceae	Neotropics, Brazil
Rodrigues, Carlos	crodrigues@nybg.org	Systematics of Araliaceae
Salinas, Nelson	nsalinas@nybg.org	Systematics of Ericaceae	New world
Stoike, Jeffrey	jeffrey.stoike@yale.edu	Agroforestry	Brazil
Virnig, Annie	avirnig@nybg.org	Genomics, ethnobotany
Wang, Xian	xwang@nybg.org	Systematics of green algae	North America
Wolkow, Robert	rw105@columbia.edu	Studies of Guyanese ethnomedicine	Guyana
Xu, Chengyuan		Ecophysiology of respiration in northern hardwood forests	North America
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