Nathan Jud

PhD Student, University of Maryland College Park

MY BOTANICAL STORY (so far)

My interest in science was greatly influenced by my father and grandfather. They both taught me from an early age the importance of conservation and the value of scientific inquiry through their interest in cave exploration and astronomy. Like so many kids, I was enamored with dinosaurs, fossils, and evolution. Whenever I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always answered “paleontologist.”

As I got older, my interest in conservation grew and I thought I might study environmental science or conservation biology in college. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school, in my college preparatory biology class, that I discovered botany. My teacher was an ethnobotanist who showed us how plants are connected to nearly every part of our lives. Because of his inspiration, I attended Ohio University to study environmental and plant biology.

During my sophomore year at Ohio University I rediscovered paleontology. I was hired for a part time job at the Ohio University Paleobotanical Herbarium, cataloging papers and fossils, and helping graduate students with fossil collecting trips to West Virginia. I was hooked instantly. I signed up for a paleobotany class as soon as I could, and I began an undergraduate research project on the first fossil evidence for the genus Todea (Osmundaceae).

My research project involved characterizing and describing a fossil rhizome, and discussing its important implications for understanding the evolution of modern osmundaceous ferns. I received a grant from an Ohio University undergraduate research fund to present my results in Dallas, Texas for the 24th Midcontinent Paleobotanical Colloquium and in Chicago, Illinois for the Botanical Society of America’s Botany 2007 meeting. At these conferences, I had the opportunity to meet other botany students and researchers during presentations and field trips. In Texas, we collected fossils along the Pennsylvanian/Permian boundary, a time of major climatic change in earth history. In Illinois, we collected at Mazon Creek, a site known for unusually large, well-preserved plant fossils.

In December 2006 I traveled to the Bahamas with Ohio University’s Global Studies in Plant Biology program. We learned the local flora of the island, and explored the third largest coral reef in the world.

I am currently finishing up a second undergraduate research project in which I am characterizing a new fossil stem with evidence of herbivory. In March 2008 I traveled to Mobile, Alabama to present my preliminary research at the 25th Midcontinent Paleobotanical Colloquium. During the conference field trip, we collected fossil plants from 3 million year old mud deposits along the Gulf Coast.

In the summer of 2008 I traveled to Vancouver Island, British Columbia to collect fossils at Eocene and Cretaceous sites, and to attend the Botany 2008 meeting. I am a first year graduate student and TA at the University of Maryland College Park, perusing with advisors at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Botanical Society of America
www.botany.org
www.BotanyConference.org
www.PlantingScience.org

Mission: The Botanical Society of America exists to promote botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, function, development, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere.