Abstract
The purpose of this paper, on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of The New York Botanical Garden, is to provide an overview of NYBG’s graduate studies program along with updated information since the last major review of the program, 25 years ago. Graduate student education has always been, and continues to be, a core mission of The New York Botanical Garden. The program is affiliated six major universities: the City University of New York, Columbia University, New York University, Yale University, Cornell University, and Fordham University. In the 125 year history of the program, the Garden has produced more than 300 graduates, including 216 Ph.D.s and 87 Master’s degrees. Students have focused on floristics, systematics, structural botany, and economic botany; the program has evolved to keep up with the continuous changes in science, with students using the most modern techniques to study plant diversity. Since 1996, the program has produced 93 graduates, including 81 Ph.D.s and 12 Master’s degrees; the Garden’s affiliation with Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies has produced a dozen graduates; and the Garden’s affiliation with Fordham University, which was reinitiated in 2008, has produced its first graduates. With the growth of the Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics and the Genomics Program in the mid-1990s, student research projects began to incorporate molecular biology (primarily based on DNA sequencing) and to address questions related to genome evolution and evolutionary developmental biology. Technological advances have also changed economic botany research. On the 125th anniversary of NYBG, the hallmark of the graduate studies program is its excellence in teaching and training, with students continuing to integrate data from modern and traditional sources to better understand plant diversity.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literature cited
Balick, M. J. 2016, this issue. Transforming the study of plants and people: A reflection on 35 years of the NYBG Institute of Economic Botany. Brittonia 68(3). doi:10.1007/s12228-016-9419-3
Birnbaum, K. D. 2000. Modeling crop genetic diversity on avocado farms. Ph.D. Dissertation. New York University.
Cross, H. 2003. Evolution, systematics, and domestication in Sechium and related genera (Sicyeae, Cucurbitaceae). Ph.D. Dissertation. Columbia University.
Kriebel, R. 2014. Phylogeny, taxonomy and morphological evolution in Conostegia (Melastomataceae: Miconieae). Ph.D. Dissertation. CUNY Academic Works.
Lentz, D. L. & M. Bellengi. 1996. A brief history of the Graduate Studies Program at The New York Botanical Garden. Brittonia 48: 404–412.
Meyer, R. S. 2012. Chemical, genetic, and ethnobotanical diversity in Asian eggplant. Ph.D. Dissertation. CUNY Academic Works.
Pabón-Mora, N. 2012. Functional evolution of the Apetala1/Fruitful gene lineage. Ph.D. Dissertation. CUNY Academic Works.
Perez, W. 2014. A Systematic Revision of North American Tolypella A. Braun (Charophyceae, Charophyta). Ph.D. Dissertation. CUNY Academic Works.
Peters, C. M. 2016, this issue. Community forestry and sustainability research at The New York Botanical Garden. Brittonia 68(3). doi:10.1007/s12228-016-9420-x
Zerega, N. 2003. Phylogenetic and Genome-wide Analyses of Artocarpus (Moraceae): Implications for the Systematics, Origins, Human-mediated Dispersal, and Conservation of Breadfruit. Ph.D. Dissertation. New York University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kelly, L.M. Training the next generation: Graduate studies at The New York Botanical Garden, with emphasis on 1996–2015. Brittonia 68, 356–362 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12228-016-9427-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12228-016-9427-3