Simmons student information

STUDENT INFORMATION

I would encourage undergraduate and masters students to work on a project based on the flora of Colorado or based on my work on the Celastraceae. Because on the paucity of collections there, I am particularly interested in having students conduct floristic studies on the plains of eastern Colorado. Floristic studies are a great way to learn the local flora, family characters, and the use of dichotomous keys. These are important skills for jobs in conservation and management of public lands. Jennifer Ackerfield and the Colorado State University Herbarium are outstanding resources to facilitate floristic studies in Colorado. As an undergraduate, I completed a flora of the Potomac River-drainage of King George County, Virginia (Simmons et al., 1995).

Other projects for undergraduate and masters students include monographing genera in the Celastraceae and conducting morphological and molecular-based phylogenetic studies of selected clades within the Celastraceae. Monographic studies would focus on poorly known genera, while phylogenetic studies would focus on taxonomically problematic taxa. As an undergraduate, I monographed the cerrado hemicryptophytic Chamaesyce of Boissier's Pleiadeniae as part of John Hayden’s work on the Euphorbiaceae (Simmons and Hayden, 1997).

I would encourage Ph.D. students to delimit their own project, though they are welcome to work on my research program as well. Students may work on any group of vascular plants that they are interested in. For example, Jerry Davis, my Ph.D. advisor at Cornell University, works on grasses, whereas I work on the Celastraceae. In addition to, or as part of, their empirical work, I would encourage Ph.D. students to work with me on my conceptual research. Phylogenetics is a broad, demanding, controversial, and rapidly moving field. It is important for students to be familiar with the conceptual aspects of the field, preferably as part of their research, rather than simply following “generally accepted” guidelines.