Art and Science Working in Harmony in the Halls of Hesler
The halls of Hesler look more like an art museum than the plant biology section of a science building thanks to a generous donation from Michael A. Mouron in honor of his father, Alfred Mouron, a graduate of the UT engineering program (’41). But art and science work in harmony, reminding the next generation of botanists of the natural beauty of their subjects, even when they are working in the lab.
W. Graham Arader III facilitated the donation of dozens of fine, hand-colored engravings to the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture. Some of the works are on loan to EEB so they can be displayed on the second and third floors of Hesler for all to view and appreciate. The collection includes works by Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Robert John Thornton, and Johann Wilhelm Weinmann. Most of the works depict an individual species, but some show small thematic groups of plants (e.g. American bog plants), and there is even a portrait of Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy.
Other donations facilitated by Arader are installed in the Burchfiel Geography Building and Ayres Hall. Arader’s mission is to bring the art and science of natural history illustration to the next generation.
In 1972, UT was one of two universities offering a PhD in ecology. Curt Richardson (PhD ’72) was the second person to ever graduate from UT with a PhD in ecology.
Earlier this year, Jeff Martin began as the new greenhouse and garden facility manager for EEB. A native of South Carolina, Jeff received his BS in horticulture from Clemson University and his MS in crop science from UT. His greenhouse experience ranges from ornamental propagation, organic vegetable production, and maintaining and expanding tropical plant collections.
Every day, biologists face the challenge of interpreting the patterns and processes of highly complex systems such as genomes, trait complexes, or communities. Zachary Marion, a graduate student in the Fitzpatrick Lab, is tackling the question of how biologists can reduce the diversity and complexity of these systems in a meaningful and understandable way in his study system of North American fireflies.
“Plants are my passion,” says Assistant Professor Jessica Budke, whose research focus is on the development and evolution of mosses.
A desire to understand the patterns and processes that determine the distribution of species and to use this information to predict impacts of anthropogenic change on species and ecological communities is what motivates Kimberly Sheldon’s research.
Fascinated with the idea that huge and complicated tasks can be accomplished by groups that could not individually observe or understand the broader goal, much less design it, Nina Fefferman, associate professor, developed her research focus on how evolution can shape individual behaviors that only work when performed as part of a group.
For the past year, Patrick Mckenzie, a senior in the EEB program, worked in the Armsworth Lab on his undergraduate research project based on data collected throughout southern Appalachia by fellow and former lab members.
As an undergraduate, Joe Williams became fascinated by the often bizarre ways plants have sex.
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.