Fla. Museum plant scientists receive award for outstanding service

November 27, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida Museum of Natural History scientists Doug and Pam Soltis and David Dilcher, and William Stern, University of Florida Botany Professor Emeritus, recently received centennial awards from the Botanical Society of America for their outstanding service to the plant sciences and the society.

The Soltises oversee the Florida Museum molecular genetics lab and are world leaders in plant genome research. Doug Soltis also currently is chair of the UF Department of Botany. Dilcher, a Florida Museum graduate research professor in the Division of Paleobotany and Palynology, is well-known for his research of the origin of flowers and the reproductive biology of the first flowering plants.

The Botanical Society of America encompasses all areas of plant biology, including development, physiology, reproductive biology, evolution, phycology, genetics, mycology, ecology, systematics, molecular biology and paleobotany. Founded in 1906, the Botanical Society of America is one of the world’s largest societies devoted to the study of plants and allied organisms.