Plant Systematics, Conservation Biology, and Ethnobotany

2025 REU Mentors and Projects

Here is a list of REU mentors and potential projects that are available for 2025. On your application, please request three mentors and projects. Assignment of accepted students to mentors will be based upon student requests, mentor input, and any special qualifications needed for individual projects.

Julián Aguirre-Santoro and Matt Austin – MBG, Herbarium. Project: Exploring Functional Traits of Bromeliads through Herbarium Specimens.

Wendy Applequist - MBG, William L. Brown Center. Project: Taxonomic studies of new species of Hypoestes from Madagascar.

Matt Austin – MBG, Herbarium and Iván Jiménez – MBG, Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development. Project: The tempo of taxonomic curation: how long do accurate species-level determinations take? [up to 2 students]

Mónica Carlsen – MBG, Latin America Department. Project: Floral scent differentiation in the genus Anthurium (Araceae).

Christy Edwards, Wen-Hsi Kuo and Matthew Albrecht - MBG, Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development. Project: Using genomic data to optimize ex situ collections of imperiled plants [up to 2 students].

Aaron Floden – MBG, Herbarium. Project: A preliminary investigation of the Clinopodium brownei (Lamiaceae) species complex.

Nisa Karimi – MBG, Africa and Madagascar. Project: Applying Pollination Syndromes to Malagasy Flora.

Andrew Kaul – MBG, Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development and Meg Engelhardt – MBG, Horticulture Division. Project: Sensitivity of seed viability estimates to assessment methodology and seed traits.

Jordan Teisher – MBG, Herbarium. Project: Herbarium DNA – A Complicated History.

Laura Toro – MBG, Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development and Kelly Andersen – MBG, Latin America Department. Project: Tropical Root Responses to Global Changes [up to 2 students].