Nov. 2, 2022–The latest issue of an international newsletter marks the first for a Missouri Western biology professor as editor-in-chief, and includes a cover photo by a Missouri Western student.
Dr. Tilo Roy, associate professor of biology, took over earlier this year as editor-in-chief of “The Vasculum,” the Society of Herbarium Curators’ biannual newsletter. “In spite of the steep learning curve, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire process from the start to the finish,” Dr. Roy wrote in her first “From the Editor’s Desk” letter.
The issue features articles on the contributions of a noted botanist who passed away earlier this year, efforts to rebuild the Berlin Herbarium, and an in-depth look at the KwaZulu-Natal Herbarium in South Africa on its 140th anniversary.
The cover photo was contributed by Connor Root, a junior biology major from St. Joseph and an undergraduate research student in Dr. Roy’s lab. It shows a specimen of the carnivorous plant Nepenthes at the Alaska Botanical Garden.
Dr. Roy’s research and teaching at MWSU actively involves dried, preserved museum-based plant specimens (herbarium collections) that are essential toward our understanding of plant ecology and evolution, conservation and scientific study.
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