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Three SEBS-RU students mentored by Lena Struwe received national awards at the international Botany 2023 conference in Boise, Idaho on July 26, 2023, organized by the Botanical Society of America.
Blair Young (EENR ’22, Plant Biology) received the AJ Sharp award for the best presentation from the American Bryological and Lichenological Society. Blair’s talk was on the discovery of endophytic bacteria inside mosses and liverworts. This research was done with Drs. Jim White (Dept. of Plant Biology) and Lena Struwe (DEENR/Plant Biology).
Ryan Schmidt (EENR ’22, E&E graduate program) received the Emmanuel Rudolph Award for his presentation on the survival and spread of hundreds of plants that inadvertently have been introduced to New Jersey through ship ballast from historical transatlantic trade. Ryan is working with Dr. Lena Struwe in the Chrysler Herbarium and during recent summers he has also revisited historical New Jersey harbors to check on old records and to find new plants.
Finally, Fitz Dettmer (EENR ’23) received the 2023 Botany and Beyond: PLANTS grant to attend this conference, and he presented on the northward movement of southern New Jersey plants due to climate change. He based this on research using Chrysler Herbarium specimens, also under the guidance of Dr. Lena Struwe (DEENR/Plant Biology).
