Department of Botany & the U.S. National Herbarium The Plant Press New Series - Vol. 13 - No. 1 January-March 2010 Botany Profile Are You Experienced? Interning in Botany By Gary A. Krupnick ducation plays a strong role in Internships have an element of educational serving an internship at the Museum has the Department of Botany. The training build into the appointment and increased over time and grown exponen- EDepartment’s mission and vision this training complements the education tially over the past few years; sometimes statement includes the aspiration “to and career goals of the intern. Internships even doubling from the previous year. become an international center for the at NMNH are administered centrally and In 2009 alone the Museum hosted 372 training of a new generation of botanical officially recorded with the Smithsonian internships with 46 of these in Botany. systematists, professional botanists and through the Center for Education and Interns have recently been involved paraprofessionals.” The resources avail- Museum Studies (SCEMS). in a broad range of projects: inventory- able within the museum, including staff, The Smithsonian is not a degree grant- ing herbarium specimens, creating digi- herbarium specimens, living greenhouse ing institution and therefore does not tal images of specimens, describing new specimens, and a molecular lab, make award academic credit. Interns can, how- species, managing databases of rare and the Department an attractive place for ever, receive academic credit from their endangered species, cataloguing historic students to further their training as young university or college for their internships collection maps, conducting laboratory botanists. and many U.S. colleges and universities research, and conducting field work in There are several ways that students will recognize academic work performed both terrestrial and marine locales. can gain botanical experience in the while interning at the museum. One program that hosted several Department. Volunteering is one way. Internship appointments are generally interns this past year was the Plant Con- Volunteers contribute their time to the at least six weeks in duration, although servation Unit (PCU). Headed by Gary benefit of the Institution. While the ser- special week-long opportunities during Krupnick, PCU is currently involved vice can be educational and of benefit to Winter Break and Spring Break are often in the preliminary conservation assess- the volunteer, the activities are deter- available. Students must be at least 16 ments of plant species. The Global Strat- mined solely by the sponsoring staff with years old to participate in an internship. egy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) calls the aim of contributing to the needs of The majority of students who serve an for a preliminary assessment list of the the Museum. A volunteer position is con- internship in the Department are from conservation status of all known plant sidered community service, not an aca- undergraduate colleges and universities, species by 2010. Unfortunately, only demic appointment, and is not recorded but high school students and graduate 4 percent of the world’s flora has been as such on the volunteers resume or CV. students have been appointed as interns as assessed. A model developed by Krup- The Visitor Information and Associates’ well. nick, with W. John Kress and Warren Reception Center (VIARC) manages and Wagner, uses data from herbarium speci- administers all behind-the-scenes volun- ating way back to the days when mens to speed up the global assessment, teer appointments Smithsonian-wide. Botany was housed in the SI identifying which plant species may be Internships are another way the DCastle and internships were an threatened and which species are com- Department actively engages students, informal and unrecorded appointment, mon based upon the number, timing, and providing hands-on education and train- the Department has maintained a long spacing of specimen collections. With ing in research, collections management tradition of educating students through the assistance of student interns, the and even administration. Unlike vol- internships. Many current and even retired plant specimen database of several plant unteering, an internship is an academic Botany staff started as an intern in the families from the U.S. National Her- appointment—a prearranged learning Department. Over the past 30 years, the barium has been checked for accuracy. experience with both the intern and National Museum of Natural History has Using floras and checklists, interns have Institution benefiting from the endeavor. hosted more than 3,000 interns including many in Botany. The number of students Continued on page 16 Travel Pedro Acevedo traveled to Tabasco, to forest trees of the Smithsonian Institu- – 10/28) to present the Darwin Lecture Mexico (10/4 – 10/14) to teach a 25-hour tion Global Earth Observatories (SIGEO) at the Smithsonian Tropical Research course on lianas and climbing plants of and the Center for Tropical Forest Science Institute; to Denver, Colorado and Santa the Neotropics at the Universidad Juarez (CTFS) network at the 3rd International Fe, New Mexico (11/6 – 11/10) and to Bir- Autonoma de Tabasco, visiting several Conference on DNA barcoding hosted by mingham, Alabama (11/18 – 11/19) as part localities and generally collecting lianas the Consortium for the Barcode of Life of a book tour for The Weeping Goldsmith and trees of interest, especially in the fam- (CBOL). and Botanica Magnifica; and to São Paulo, ily Sapindaceae. Robin Everly traveled to Seattle, Wash- Brazil (12/1 – 12/5) to participate in a Walter Adey traveled to Williamsburg, ington and to Chicago, Illinois (10/15 special workshop on DNA barcoding and Virginia (10/22; 12/10) to attend meet- – 10/21) to attend a Council on Botanical to give an invited lecture on plants. ings of the Chesapeake Algae Project; to and Horticultural Libraries board meet- Gary Krupnick traveled to Chicago, Fayetteville, ­­Arkansas and Kalamazoo, ing and to visit the Field Museum and the Illinois (9/30 – 10/3) to participate in the Michigan (11/2 – 11/6) to meet with col- Chicago Botanic Garden. North American regional meeting of the leagues at the University of Arkansas and Christian Feuillet travelled to St. Global Strategy for Plant Conservation the University of Western Michigan to Louis, Missouri (11/17 – 11/26) to work and a workshop on Botanical Capacity discuss results of the ATS Energy Proj- on West Indian Cordia (Boraginaceae) and Assessment, and to present a poster at ect; to Havre de Grace, Maryland (11/10) on Dilkea and Passiflora (Passifloraceae) the Janet Meakin Poor Research Sympo- to meet with Constellation Energy and at the Missouri Botanical Garden. sium—Global Plant Conservation Sci- Exelon staff to discuss the location of an Vicki Funk traveled to Uruguay, ence and Outreach at the Chicago Botanic ATS pilot plant on Chesapeake Bay; and Argentina, and Chile (11/24/09 – 1/10/10) Garden. to Brooklyn, New York (11/15 – 11/16) to to meet with fellow synantherologists and Mark and Diane Littler traveled to meet with the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct field work; two former Smith- Ft. Pierce, Florida (12/25/09 – 2/19/10) directorate on the Susquehanna River sonian post-doctoral fellows, J. Marurico to conduct on-going field research on the Basin Commission. Bonifacino (Montevideo; MVFA) and functional-form, biosystematics and com- David Erickson traveled to Mexico Gisela Sancho (La Plata, LP), organized parative ecology of south Florida marine City, Mexico (11/7 – 11/11) to give a the events and participated in the field algae and seagrasses. presentation on applying DNA barcodes work. Paul Peterson traveled to Mexico City, W. John Kress traveled to London, Mexico (11/6 − 11/9) to attend a plan- The Plant Press England (10/12 – 10/16) to give an invited ning meeting for the Grass Barcoding of presentation at the 250th Anniversary Life Project (GrassBoL); and to San Jose, New Series - Vol. 13 - No. 1 Celebration of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Costa Rica (12/6 – 12/13) to give a semi- Kew; to Panama City, Panama (10/26 Continued on page 5 Chair of Botany Warren L. Wagner Visitors ([email protected]) Blanca Leon, Universidad Nacional zhou; Chloridoideae (Poaceae) (7/4/09- EDITORIAL STAFF Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru; Peru- 7/4/10). Editor vian Tillandsia (Bromeliaceae) and flora Silvia Nicole, University of Padova, Italy; Gary Krupnick (10/18/07-10/18/09). ([email protected]) Plant DNA barcoding (7/10-10/31). Michael Martin, Johns Hopkins Uni- News Contacts versity; Ambrosia (Compositae) (1/1/09- Christine Bacon, Colorado State Univer- MaryAnn Apicelli, Robert Faden, Ellen 6/30/10). sity; Hawaiian Pritchardia (Arecaceae) Farr, Shirley Maina, Rusty Russell, Alice (9/8-12/8). Tangerini, and Elizabeth Zimmer Zhumei Ren, Shanxi University, China; Gallnut aphid/host plant coevolution based Emily Forse, Georgetown University; The Plant Press is a quarterly publication pro- Plant conservation internship (9/14-12/11). vided free of charge. To receive notification of on DNA sequences (2/1/09-1/31/10). when new pdf issues are posted to the web, please subscribe to the listserve by sending a message Pingting Chen, Central China Agri- Orlando Jara, Universidad Nacional de to [email protected] containing only the Colombia, Bogota; Colombian Erythroxy- following in the body of the text: SUBSCRIBE cultural University; Vitaceae (3/1/09- PLANTPRESS-NEWS Firstname Lastname. 2/28/10). lum (Erythroxylaceae) (9/17-10/18). Replace “Firstname Lastname” with your name. David Lorence, National Tropical Botani- If you would like to be added to the hard-copy Virginia Valcacel, Universidad Pablo mailing list, please contact Dr. Gary Krupnick at: de Olavide, Spain; Hedera (Araliaceae) cal Garden; Marquesas Islands flora (9/21- Department of Botany, Smithsonian Institution, 10/4). PO Box 37012, NMNH MRC-166, Washington, (4/19-10/20). DC 20013-7012, or by E-mail: krupnickg@ Andrea Leon, Universidad Nacional de si.edu.