GER-9554522 Donoghue This program will provide broad graduate training in plant systematics, thereby addressing widely recognized needs in plant biology and environmental biology. The Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (OEB) is ideally suited to provide this training. Eight OEB faculty (three newly appointed) will be primary participants in the program, along with five associated personnel from outside the department. New molecular laboratories complement the strengths, and growing interest on the part of outstanding applicants, the development of a plant systematics program has been hindered by limitations on internal funding. The program will bring eight new students into the department and will provide flexible funding for other students to ensure broad training and timely completion of the PhD. A rotation scheme and several new courses will be initiated, targeting morphological and molecular techniques and the teaching of plant systematics. Harvard will augment NSF funding by supplementing tuition and providing field research assistantships, herbarium traineeships, and resources for the new courses, workshops, rotations, and recruitment activities. The participating faculty will allocate GRT funds to meet these goals and will coordinate efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented minority students.
