John L. Clark Email & Phone Number

My career is primarily focused on teaching and promoting a passion for biodiversity. My research is on plant biodiversity with an emphasis on the systematics (esp. taxonomy and phylogenetics) of the neotropical members of the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae. I have worked on projects that range from floristics to molecular phylogenetics, emphasizing the biodiversity of Cuba, Haiti, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. In January of 2023, I started a new position as Research Botanist at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida. My work at Selby Gardens is geared towards a lab- and field-based approach to promoting the conservation and biodiversity of plants in Florida and Latin America.My early career includes 9+ years as the Curator for The University of Alabama Herbarium (UNA) and Associate Professor (with tenure) in the Department of Biological Sciences at The University of Alabama. In 2015, I joined the Lawrenceville School Science Department as the Aldo Leopold Distinguished Teaching Chair. During my 7+ years at the Lawrenceville School, I initiated and directed student-oriented collaborative research programs with botanists from the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Sarasota, Florida), Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh (Scotland), and the Universidad Estatal Amazónica (Ecuador). I also directed annual student-oriented expedition-based research programs in Cuba and Ecuador.I currently hold research associate positions at the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Botany (National Museum of Natural History) and the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh. I worked as a full-time field botanist with the National Herbarium of Ecuador (QCNE) while serving as a US Peace Corps Volunteer. During that time, I helped pioneer the Bilsa Biological Station in a remote locality in the Cordillera Mache-Chindul of western Ecuador. I have also commercially fished (Bristol Bay, Alaska), spent a year as a US Fulbright Scholar, and worked as a mountaineering instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS Pacific Northwest).

Listed skills include Research, Science, Teaching, Higher Education, and 23 others.