Williams Explores the History of Plant Life Histories
As an undergraduate, Joe Williams became fascinated by the often bizarre ways plants have sex.
“Who would have thought that the Ginkgo tree shedding pollen in the back yard was actually sending out tiny plants inside its pollen grains?” says Williams, professor of plant evolutionary biology and chair of graduate affairs in EEB.
As a student, Williams realized the complexity of reproduction in flowering plants might cause evolution to happen faster.
“Pollen competes for access to eggs, and competition is much more intense in flowering plants than in other seed plants like the Ginkgo, because plants with flowers are so often insect-pollinated,” says Williams. “Each insect visit brings a lot of pollen grains to a flower, which all start the race to the egg at the same time.”
Williams has worked over the past 15 years reconstructing ancient aspects of pollen performance in flowering plants. Because scientists are unable to study pollen competitive ability in the fossil record, Williams focused on living proxies within ancient extant lineages of flowering plants.
“If I could choose one word to describe the performance of pollen from these species, it would be slow!” says Williams.
Now, Williams is interested in the role of pollen in how the big winners in flowering plant evolution – weeds and annuals – evolved their exceptionally rapid life histories.
Jim Drake, who recently retired from EEB, spent his entire professional career at UT after receiving his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin and doctorate at Purdue, followed by a post-doctoral stint at Stanford. Drake began his career as an assistant professor in the Department of Zoology and the ecology graduate program beginning in 1986 and was a founding member of the EEB department when it was formed in 1992.
The cotyledons of a tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) emerging from east Tennessee soil in 1970 would have by now produced an imposing tree, approaching a half century in age. Nineteen-seventy also would see a young PhD candidate from middle Tennessee arrive on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus and begin his studies in the botany department. This past summer that young graduate student, Research Associate Professor B. Eugene Wofford (Gene), stepped down as full time director of the University of Tennessee Herbarium, leaving a legacy as one of the most accomplished botanists to graduate, teach, and conduct his research through the UT Department of Botany, (now the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology).
It has been an exciting year in EEB. Our department has grown on many fronts. First, we have recruited lots of great new people. I’d like to extend a warm welcome to the five new faculty who are joining us during the 2016-17 academic year: Associate Professor Nina Fefferman and Assistant Professors Jessica Budke, Kimberly Sheldon, Mona Papes, and Xingli Giam. Jessica Budke is also the new director of the Tennessee Herbarium (TENN), stepping in as Gene Wofford retires after 40 excellent years at the helm of TENN. Jim Drake has also retired after 29 years of service to the university. Enhancements to the greenhouse facilities at Hesler and Senter Halls also include a new management team. I welcome Jeff Martin who serves as the greenhouse manager with assistance from Benny Crain, our new lecturer. Benny Crain is creating the new BIO 150 lab curriculum. Our greenhouse facility is expanding research and teaching capacity under Jeff’s management.
Jacob Wessels, an undergraduate in EEB working in the Fitzpatrick Lab, is focused on the population ecology of the nonnative Mediterranean geckos, which have established populations throughout much of the southern United States and have been expanding their range northward largely through unintentional transport by people.