bees, Conservation, Data Science, Diversity in STEM, Ecology, entymology, Pollination, Pollinators, Stem, Wildflowers
Biologist Lauren Ponisio earned a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MS and BS from Stanford University. A National Geographic Society Early Career Award winner and honored as a Global Food Initiative 30 Under 30 in Food Systems, Ponisio earned a Moore/Sloan Data Science Postdoctoral Fellowship and National Institute for Food and Agriculture Fellowship. Ponisio joined the University of Oregon Department of Biology in 2020. She is also part of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution. Ponisio studies bees and their roles as pollinators, both in managed and natural-plant communities. She鈥檚 currently leading a pilot study that could change how forestlands in the Northwest are managed, particularly post-harvest and post-fire, to the benefit of wild bees. Her research has examined ways to persuade California almond growers to adopt more bee-friendly agricultural practices; discovered how native bee species may be best equipped to survive intensive agricultural practices and climate change; and analyzed how forest fires can help maintain pollinator biodiversity. In addition to her research in biological sciences, her mission is to promote human diversity in the sciences.
Plant Biology, Pollination
Current research in Virginia and West Virginia includes natural history and conservation studies of two endangered plant species, the shale barren rock cress (Bochera serotina) and piratebush (Buckleya distichiophylla). Additionally, I am conducting studies on a plant species known from only one population in Virginia, Michaux’s gladecress (Leavenworthia uniflora). A major part of each of these studies involves pollination experiments and flower-visitor observations. Floristic surveys in Rockingham County and other parts of the Shenandoah Valley also comprise some of my Virginia studies.
My Galápagos research has taken a variety of directions. Over the years, my work has concentrated on the reproductive biology of Galápagos natives and endemics. However, I am currently involved in a systematics study of a few members of the Galápagos endemic flowering plant genus Scalesia. My colleagues and I, using morphological and molecular data are attempting to determine the boundaries of these species, and whether they are capable of forming fertile hybrids.
Dr. McMullen is author of the book, Flowering Plants of the Galápagos, published by Cornell University Press.
Dr. McMullen earned his doctorate at the University of Maryland, his master's at JMU and his bachelor's at Eastern Mennonite University.