Botanist Alan Weakley to Present at JSU on March 14

03/09/2012


UNC Botanist Alan Weakley will visit Jacksonville State University on March 14, 2012 to present a lecture hosted by the JSU Department of Biology. Dr. Weakley will speak at 1:30 p.m. in Room 122 of Martin Hall. The lecture is free and open to the general public. The title of the lecture is "Advances in our understanding of the southern United States flora."

Dr. Weakley is a plant systematist and community ecologist specializing in the Southeastern United States.  He has had an extensive and varied career in botany, ecology, and conservation, including work as an environmental consultant and as Chief Ecologist for The Nature Conservancy and NatureServe.  Since 2002, Dr. Weakley has been Curator of the UNC Herbarium (NCU) of the North Carolina Botanical Garden, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill in the Curriculum for the Environment and Ecology and the Department of Biology.  He serves on the Flora of North America’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee, as Trustee of the North Carolina Natural Heritage Trust Fund, as Chair of the North Carolina Plant Conservation Program Scientific Committee, as Chair of the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program Advisory Committee, and is a co-founder of the Carolina Vegetation Survey.  His primary research interests include eastern North American floristics, plant systematics, and phytogeography, classification and mapping of vegetation types, bioinformatics, conservation planning theory and practice, conservation biology, and natural lands management and restoration.  Dr. Weakley is working on several flora projects, including a new Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States and the Flora of Virginia Project.
 
For additional information, please contact Dr. Triplett in the Biology Department.

Photo: Alan Weakley (from bio on UNC.edu)