| Botany
College of Natural Sciences
St. John 101
3190 Maile Way
Honolulu, HI 96822
Tel: (808) 956-8369
Fax: (808) 956-3923
Web: www.botany.hawaii.edu
Faculty
*S. C. Keeley,
PhD (Chair)--molecular systematics,
evolution in island systems
*K. W. Bridges, PhD--systems ecology
*G. D. Carr, PhD--biosystematics, cytotaxonomy, chromosome evolution
*C. C. Daehler, PhD--population biology, invasive plants,
plant-herbivore interactions
D. C. Duffy, PhD--conservation, restoration ecology
*G. H. Goldstein, PhD--physiological ecology of vascular plants,
tropical plant ecology
*C. H. Lamoureux, PhD--comparative and developmental morphology,
conservation, pteridophytes
*W. C. McClatchey, PhD--Pacific ethnobotony, ethnopharmacology
*C. W. Morden, PhD--molecular systematics and evolution of plants and
algae
*C. M. Smith, PhD--physiological ecology of marine macrophytes, marine
ecology, cell biology
*A. H. Teramura, PhD--global climate change, ozone depletion,
physiological ecology
*D. T. Webb, PhD--plant anatomy, electron microscopy, morphogenesis,
symbiosis
*G. J. Wong, PhD--mating systems and biosystematics of basidiomycetes
Cooperating Graduate Faculty
D. Borthakur, PhD--plant molecular genetics
D. A. Christopher, PhD--gene regulation of photosynthesis,
uv effects
D. E. Hemmes, PhD--plant ultrastructure (University
of Hawai‘i at Hilo)
Y. Sagawa, PhD--cytogenetics, tissue culture
W. S. Sakai, PhD--ultrastructure, physiological anatomy
(University of Hawai‘i at Hilo)
C. S. Tang, PhD--allelopathy, phytochemistry, plant
biochemistry
Affiliate Graduate Faculty
J. J. Ewel,
PhD--tropical forest succession
K. C. Ewel, PhD--ecology, management practices,
wetland and terrestrial ecosystems
D. E. Gardner, PhD--pathology of native vegetation
D. R. Herbst, PhD--endangered and threatened Pacific flora, plant
morphology
G. T. Kraft, PhD--systematics and evolution of Pacific Basin macroalgae
L. L. Loope, PhD--ecology, conservation of rare and endangered species
(Maui)
F. C. Meinzer, PhD--environmental plant physiology, stress physiology
W. A. Whistler, PhD--systematics, Pacific ethnobotany
Adjunct Faculty
A. K. Chock, MS--Hawaiian ethnobotany
R. Gay, MS--plant ecology
W. J. Hoe, PhD--bryophyte taxonomy and biogeography
D. H. Lorence, PhD--systematics of flowering plants (Kaua‘i)
*Graduate Faculty
Degrees Offered: BA in botany, BS in botany, MS
in botanical sciences (botany), PhD in botanical sciences (botany)
The Academic Program
The University of Hawai‘i at Manoa has the only
botany department (BOT) located in a tropical environment in the United
States. Both tropical marine and terrestrial ecosystems provide the
subjects of research and teaching. The department is committed to
broad-based botanical training that focuses on developing an
understanding of Hawai‘i’s unique island environment. While it
maintains traditional areas of botanical study, the department also uses
new approaches and current technologies. It has faculty in anatomy,
ecology and systematics, ethnobotany, physiology and physiological
ecology, molecular evolution and systematics, and population and
evolutionary biology. The faculty includes world experts in ecology and
evolution of Hawai‘i’s ecosystems and unique land plants such as
silverswords, ‘o‘hia and naupaka; the ecology and physiology of
marine corals, seaweed blooms and biofouling; and the uses of plants by
the human cultures of the Pacific Basin. Participation in the
interdepartmental undergraduate Biology Program and the graduate program
in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology provides interactions
with other departments and expands opportunities for breadth in research
and instruction. All botany faculty members, regardless of rank, teach
courses in the undergraduate curriculum as well as at advanced levels.
The department offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of
science, and minor degrees in botany at the undergraduate level and the
MS and PhD degrees at the graduate level. Undergraduate majors follow a
number of career paths leading to employments as naturalists,
environmental planners, policy makers, conservation biologists,
teachers, researchers, and museum or organizational directors. A number
of graduates have assumed important positions in public and private
institutions at the national and international levels.
Support at the undergraduate and graduate levels is
available via competitive tuition waivers and scholarships. Teaching and
research assistantships are additionally available at the graduate
level.
The botany programs strongly emphasize field
experience, as well as hands-on laboratory training, in locally
important plants, their environments, historical and present uses, and
unique evolutionary aspects of Hawai‘i and the Pacific. The
department’s World Wide Web site provides glimpses into the many
environments and special plants that provide a rich base for students
and faculty alike (www.botany.hawaii.edu). The faculty includes
specialists in marine algae, terrestrial fungi, flowering and
nonflowering plants, evolutionary studies using chromosomes and DNA
sequence evolution, and plant uses by Pacific peoples. Recent faculty
additions have included specialists in population biology and control of
non-native plants that are affecting vulnerable flora.
Hawai‘i has over half of all the endangered plant
species in the United States. Botanical knowledge and understanding are
essential to the continued preservation and understanding of these
unique plants. The National Biological Survey has an office in Honolulu,
as do other nationally prominent organizations such as the Nature
Conservancy, the National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife
Service. The botany department provides identifications and fundamental
knowledge about Hawai‘i’s unique plants to local citizens, schools,
and state and federal agencies.
Hawai‘i’s location provides botany students the
best opportunity for exploration of tropical marine or terrestrial
ecosystems available anywhere in the United States. The varied
environments and climates present in the islands allow work from the
reefs to the tops of snow-covered volcanoes. The isolation and geology
of the islands have produced a unique flora, unmatched in its potential
for asking and answering systematic, evolutionary, human, and ecological
questions.
Affiliations
Botanical studies are enhanced by cooperative working
relationships between the department and Hawai‘i Institute of Marine
Biology, Harold L. Lyon Arboretum, Kewalo Marine Laboratory of the
Pacific Biomedical Research Center, Cooperative Park Studies Unit of the
National Park Service, Nature Conservancy, State of Hawai‘i Department
of Land and Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National
Tropical Botanical Garden, Honolulu Botanical Garden, Herbarium
Pacificum and the Department of Botany of the B. P. Bishop Museum,
Hawai‘i Agriculture Research Center (formerly Hawaiian Sugar
Planters’ Association), and Waikiki Aquarium. |