Academic Opportunities

University courses taught by Herbaria curators and staff

Bio 1B: General biology (plant and fungal diversity section): Dr. Bruce Baldwin
IB/ESPM 105C: Natural History Museums and Biodiversity Science: Dr. Brent Mishler (which other BNHM directors and curators). A seminar course covering biodiversity collections management, conservation and digitization, and collections-based research. The course includes an individual project within a given museum, with project opportunities in the Herbaria.
IB 158: Tropical biology and geology: Dr. Brent Mishler (with Dr. J. Lipps and others). An intensive field research class in tropical biology and geology meeting every day of the week for a few weeks on campus, then moving to the UC Berkeley Gump Research Station on Moorea in French Polynesia for over two months.
IB 165: Molecular evolution: Dr. Brent Mishler (with Dr. M. Slatkin)
IB 200A: Principles of Phylogenetics: Systematics: Dr. Brent Mishler (with Dr. D. Lindberg). A general and rigorous introduction to theory and method of building phylogenetic trees, with a laboratory component on numerical methods. The course focuses on general principles in systematics, rather than on specific taxonomic groups.
IB 200B: Principles of Phylogenetics: Ecology and Evolution: Dr. Brent Mishler (with Dr. D. Lindberg). This course focuses on the use of phylogenies to answer ecological and evolutionary questions (e.g., behavior, development, functional morphology, populational genetics, conservation, biogeogeography, and speciation), with a laboratory component on numerical methods.
IB 168: Systematics of vascular plants: Dr. Bruce Baldwin . An introduction to the evolution and classification of vascular plants, including plant families worldwide.
IB/PMB C107: Principles of Plant Morphology
IB/PMB C110: Biology of Fungi: Dr. John Taylor

For more information on registration, class schedules, etc., see the UC Berkeley Student page.

Undergraduate student training

A variety of studies are possible. Martha Burford worked with Dr. Brent Mishler on herbarium techniques and the flora of Moorea in French Polynesia; Sandy Wu and Philip Kwok worked with Dr. Mishler in the lab on molecular systematics of mosses. Undergraduate students majoring in Integrative Biology, Plant & Microbial Biology, and other areas of biology have worked with Dr. Baldwin and members of his lab on diverse studies in plant systematics and floristics. If you are interested in undergraduate research, contact Dr. Mishler (bmishler@berkeley.edu) or Dr. Baldwin (bbaldwin@berkeley.edu).

Graduate student training

For information about admission to the Department of Integrative Biology, contact the IB Graduate Affairs Office at ibgradsao@berkeley.edu or see the UC Berkeley Student page.

Postdoctoral training

Dr. Katarina Andreasen
Dr. Carlos Garcia-Verdugo
Dr. Steven Jessup
Dr. Joongku Lee
Dr. Dean Kelch
Dr. Pablo Vargas
Dr. Linda Ann Vorobik
Dr. John Wheeler

Seminars and Symposia

The staff of the Herbaria participate with graduate students in several discussion groups in Integrative Biology and the other museums, and consult frequently with a number of systematics graduate students across the university. We host a weekly Botany Lunch series in the herbaria, an informal brown-bag series in our lunchroom open to everybody, but especially the various botanical labs and groups on campus. It has worked out well to bring colleagues together from different departments and into intellectual contact with the graduate students.

As part of the consortium called the Berkeley Natural History Museums, the Herbaria help to present lecture series designed for the general public.

The Herbaria also sponsor scientific meetings from time to time. Past events include:

Current status of the phylogeny of the charophyte green algae and the embryophytes Held at the University of California, Berkeley, June 24-28, 1995

Endangered Languages, Endangered Knowledge, Endangered Environments: An Interdisciplinary Working Conference held at the University of California at Berkeley, October 25-27, 1996

SF Bay Area Site Stewardship Fair and Evening Talk, "Biodiversity and Stewardship: Our Common Responsibility" by Dr. Peter Raven, April 21, 1998