John L. Clark
Research Associate @Missouri Botanical Garden
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WORK HISTORY
Research Associate @Missouri Botanical Garden
I am currently employed by the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida, and collaborate with the Missouri Botanical Garden on several collections-based projects. My botanical career began under the guidance of David Neill in 1994, so joining Missouri as a Research Associate in 2023 to work on collections-based science feels like a full-circle moment. It\'s been a truly rewarding experience to contribute alongside such esteemed institutions in advancing botanical research and conservation.
EDUCATION
The George Washington University
Ph.D., Evolutionary Biology
University of Vermont
BS, Forest Biology
University of Vermont
Bachelor of Science - BS, Forest biology
SKILLS
ABOUT JOHN L. CLARK
My career is primarily focused on teaching and promoting a passion for biodiversity. My research is on plant biodiversity with an emphasis on the systematics (esp. taxonomy and phylogenetics) of the neotropical members of the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae. I have worked on projects that range from floristics to molecular phylogenetics, emphasizing the biodiversity of Cuba, Haiti, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. In January of 2023, I started a new position as Research Botanist at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida. My work at Selby Gardens is geared towards a lab- and field-based approach to promoting the conservation and biodiversity of plants in Florida and Latin America.My early career includes 9+ years as the Curator for The University of Alabama Herbarium (UNA) and Associate Professor (with tenure) in the Department of Biological Sciences at The University of Alabama. In 2015, I joined the Lawrenceville School Science Department as the Aldo Leopold Distinguished Teaching Chair. During my 7+ years at the Lawrenceville School, I initiated and directed student-oriented collaborative research programs with botanists from the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Sarasota, Florida), Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh (Scotland), and the Universidad Estatal Amazónica (Ecuador). I also directed annual student-oriented expedition-based research programs in Cuba and Ecuador.I currently hold research associate positions at the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Botany (National Museum of Natural History) and the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh. I worked as a full-time field botanist with the National Herbarium of Ecuador (QCNE) while serving as a US Peace Corps Volunteer. During that time, I helped pioneer the Bilsa Biological Station in a remote locality in the Cordillera Mache-Chindul of western Ecuador. I have also commercially fished (Bristol Bay, Alaska), spent a year as a US Fulbright Scholar, and worked as a mountaineering instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS Pacific Northwest).
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