I am a Research Fellow of the Harvard University Herbaria hosted by Charles Davis and a Research Associate of the Field Museum. I am interested in improving our estimates of the global diversity of plants by understanding floristic patterns and forces that have generated those patterns. I achieve this through studies on select plant clades and targeted projects to inventory, describe, and conserve forests in South America. These interests in botany and evolutionary biology have arisen from lifelong exploration of wilderness and fascination with the diversity and ecological interactions of plants.

I earned my PhD in the Mason-Gamer lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago for my work on the biogeography, diversification, and domestication in the Coca family (cocaine, not chocolate). Systematic research on the coca family as well as the coca crops remains a primary focus of my research, but I have since expanded in to the Dryas and Pedicularis clades.

It is an honor and a privilege to be a scientist, especially as an investigator of the botany and history of coca. For many South Americans it is the single, most important physical material and a direct gift from mother earth, while others know it as the source of decades of violence and social disruption. It could be the world's most interesting plant. Read some more on the 'Coca Leaf' page. 

I am also leading a team effort to conduct floristic inventories and preserve the remaining forest fragments at the infamous Cerro Centinela in Western Ecuador. Please check out the '¡Viva Centinela!' page for news, information, and opportunities to assist, or join, our team.

A final dimension of my work focuses on improving our abilities to identify species and measure their characteristics by analyzing the spectrum of UV, visible, and infrared light reflected off of leaves. This focus was born via my first postdoc in the Ree Lab at the Field Museum in collaboration with Peter Nelson, Dudu Meireles, and the NSF ASCEND Biology Integration Institute.