Dr. Adam Schneider is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. His research focuses on the evolution and diversity of parasitic plants, using a wide range of methods including field study, genomic sequencing, greenhouse experiments, phylogenetic analysis, museum specimens, and crowdsourced data via iNaturalist. At the same time, he curates the UWL herbarium, an archive of tens of thousands of wild-collected plant specimens that are used in research, teaching, and outreach. Beyond teaching and research, Dr. Schneider is on the board of the Botanical Club of Wisconsin and the managing editor of the peer-reviewed journal Systematic Botany.

Amy McPherson is the Director of Publications for the Botanical Society of America and Managing Editor of the American Journal of Botany, the Society’s flagship journal. Prior to joining the BSA in 2005, Amy was Managing Editor of the Missouri Botanical Garden Press and oversaw publication of two journals and several book series. She has a degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and decades of experience in scholarly publishing. Botanists are her favorite kinds of people.

Dr. Andrea Berardi is an Assistant Professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She is a plant evolutionary biologist whose research focuses on evolutionary, genetic, and ecological processes underlying speciation, specifically focusing on how floral traits play a role in reproductive isolation and adaptation to the environment. Her favorite traits to study are floral color and plant secondary/specialized metabolites. She is co-editing a special issue of the American Journal of Botany on "Paradigm Shifts in Flower Color," along with Justen Whittall, Eduardo Narbona, and José Carlos del Valle García.

Caprice Disbrow loves sharing her passion and curiosity for the natural world with anyone who will listen. She holds a B.S. in plant biology from UC Davis and an M.S. in plant ecology from Sonoma State University. Prior to falling in love with teaching, she worked as a professional botanist at Jacobs Engineering and served on the board of the California Native Plant Society Milo Baker Chapter. At Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC), she’s taught majors and non-majors botany, introductory biology, and ecology. She also curates the SRJC Herbarium, and co-coordinates the SRJC Campus Biodiversity Initiative. Ironically, despite studying plants (which lack neurons), she is now diving deep into the psychology of science education, metacognition, identifying/correcting misconceptions, and learning how to learn. She is excited to examine how Campus Biodiversity Initiative and herbarium experiences impact a person’s identity in STEM education. 

Incoming BSA President Chris Martine earned a BS and MS at Rutgers, followed by a PhD in Botany at the University of Connecticut. He began his tenure-track PUI career at SUNY Plattsburgh and since 2012 has been the David Burpee Professor at Bucknell University, where he is also Director of the Manning Herbarium. A broadly interested botanist, Chris has published studies on 19 different plant genera across 17 families as well as two field guides illustrated by his wife, Rachel. The primary focus of his research for the past 20+ years has been the reproductive biology, taxonomy, systematics, and ecology of Australian bush tomatoes. He frequently engages in science communications--writing, speaking, and creating content for non-scientist audiences including producing and hosting educational videos on YouTube. He has received multiple professional honors including the Bessey Teaching Award from the BSA and the Peter Raven Award from the ASPT. BlueSky/Insta: @martinebotany 

Eric von Wettberg's laboratory group, the Crop Genetic Heritage Laboratory, studies the consequences of population bottlenecks for adaptation to harsh environments, merging approaches from genomics and evolutionary ecology. A great many crops are deficient in genetic diversity as a result of extreme population bottlenecks resulting from domestication and breeding. This limits their capacity for adaptation to new or altered habitats. Understanding the consequences of domestication and breeding bottlenecks can help us develop more resilient crops to weather extremes.  They aim to examine the evolutionary ecology of wild relatives of crops to help breed better crops, conserve crop genetic resources, and build resilience into agricultural systems. They primarily work on legumes, with a current focus on legumes of the Near East and South and Southeast Asia. In parallel work, they strive to introduce new crops to Vermont through participatory breeding approaches.

Dr. Erica Lawrence-Paul is an NSF postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Jesse Lasky’s lab in the Department of Biology at the Pennsylvania State University. She earned her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, studying the ecophysiological significance of the plant developmental transition, vegetative phase change, with a particular focus on photosynthetic and leaf carbon economic traits. Her current work focuses on understanding how natural variation in the timing of vegetative phase change and phase-specific differences in stress tolerance contribute to plant abiotic stress response and local adaption.

Institution: Pennsylvania State University

Bluesky: @ehlawrence-paul.bsky.social

Bio: Irwin Goldman is a Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a faculty member in the Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics program. He teaches courses in vegetable crops, plant breeding, evolutionary biology, indigenous food systems, and plants and human well-being. His research is focused on breeding and genetics of vegetable crops, including human health attributes of vegetables. Irwin and his students have helped develop new strains of beet, carrot, and onion that are in use in many vegetable growing regions around the world. Irwin has a BS degree from the University of Illinois, a MS from North Carolina State University, and a Ph.D. from Wisconsin. He completed postdoctoral work at the University of Illinois.

Jessica is a whole plant physiologist with expertise in vascular physiology, floral physiology, phenology, and physiological ecology in seasonally cold climates. She has a sweet tooth which gives her a strong disposition towards research tied to the phloem. She is an Associate Professor at a primary undergraduate institution and has a passion for mentoring undergraduate and graduate students (especially master’s students). She developed and runs a community-engaged research program focused on tree phenology in coastal forests around Lake Superior and is the Chair of the Physiological and Ecophysiological Sect. of BSA. Before starting as a faculty, she was a Putnam Research Fellow at the Arnold Arboretum and a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. She received her PhD from the University of Minnesota in Plant Biological Sciences. The research discussed in the podcast was funded by the National Science Foundation (IOS 1656318).

BlueSky @savageplantphys.bsky.social 

Dr. Jordan Dowell is an assistant professor at Louisiana State University and an Associate Editor of Applications in Plant Science, a journal of the Botanical Society of America. He studies the evolutionary ecology of plant-plant chemical communication and the impacts of multifunctional traits on biotic interactions from single-cells to landscapes using various techniques, from metabolomic and genomic approaches to remote sensing and field-based studies.

Karolina is an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut where her lab studies the evolutionary genomics and ecophysiology of diverse photosynthetic pathways in plants. She is also director of the George Safford Torrey Herbarium at UConn. Karolina earned her B.S. from the University of Wisconsin then completed her Ph.D. at the University of Georgia. She held postdoctoral positions at UGA and Yale before taking her first faculty position at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.

Institutional affiliation: University of Connecticut, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Website: kheyduk.net

Social media: Bluesky @kheyduk.bsky.social

Dr. Shiran Ben Zeev, the creator and host of the podcast, is a postdoctoral fellow at Penn State University who studies plant–plant interactions in crops. He completed a Ph.D. in Crop and Vegetable Sciences at Hebrew University, focusing on genetic and agronomic aspects of lodging in tef, alongside ground-breaking breeding initiatives. He produced and hosted award-winning podcasts about science and sustainability in Israel, and is a proud husband and father.