Dr. Jacob Suissa

Jacob suissa, PHD

Evolutionary Biologist and Nature Lover

about jacob

Jacob Suissa is a scientist from Bethesda, Maryland who studies plants. He is a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Growing up, he spent most of his time playing sports or wandering around the woods in his friend’s backyard. Jacob liked dissecting and investigating plants, but he didn’t realize he wanted to study them until he was in college at the University of Vermont and started working as a gardener for his university and spent a lot of time thinking about plant anatomy. That led him to pursue his PhD in Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, where he continued his studies of plants. Jacob loves to hike, swim, run, play sports like basketball, and do jigsaw puzzles.

Jacob collecting specimens in the field

Photo courtesy of Jacob Suissa

What does Jacob study?

Jacob studies plant evolution, phylogenetics (the relationships between different plants and groups of plants), and morphology (the way plants’ tissues and anatomical structures are arranged; the way they look). He is interested in understanding how certain physical traits of plants evolved, and why the plants have those traits. Ferns are especially interesting to him, and he focuses most of his research on them and their close relatives--one of the oldest and most diverse groups of plants.

How did he know he wanted to be a scientist?

"I was always interested in nature since I was a young child, however I did not know I wanted to be a scientists until my senior year of high school. I had a fantastic environmental science teacher who ignited my passion for the field. When I entered college I still didn’t know that I was interested in botany, but during an introductory plant biology class, I became hooked. The rest is history."

What does he love about his job?

"I love my job because I am allowed to ask and answer all the interesting questions I have about nature. I also get to play outside and cut up plants like I used to when I was younger; I get to stay a kid forever."

Science Communication

Jacob is passionate about science communication. He has an Instagram account called "Let's Botanize!" that explains plants an botany in a way that is interesting and accessible to non-experts. His account has grown over the years to reach people with little to no scientific training and botany experts alike. He now has almost 180k followers! Jacob highlights fascinating topics in Biology everywhere from exotic locations like Ecuador to sidewalk cracks in New York City. His message is that interesting plants are everywhere and everyone can make a hobby of observing them. Check out this video he posted about figs and their...unique pollination strategy.

Jacob's Research

In 2024, Jacob published a paper with two collaborators: another fern biologist and an ant biologist. Together, they had investigated the evolution of something called "extrafloral nectaries" in ferns, and how those structures may have helped recruit ant "body guards" for the ferns. First, watch this video that Jacob posted on the Let's Botanize account. It explains what an extrafloral nectary is, in general. Then, read this article about Jacob and his collaborator's study.

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