July 13, 2020
Biology faculty member named president-elect of American Society of Plant Taxonomists
Submitted by Division of Biology
Carolyn Ferguson, professor and curator of the K-State Herbarium and associate director of the Division of Biology, was elected president-elect of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. Ferguson will serve a three-year term in the leadership of the society, one year each as president-elect, president and past president.
More than 1,000 members strong, the society was founded in 1935 and promotes research in and teaching of taxonomy, systematics and phylogenetics of all plants. The society publishes two journals, Systematic Botany and Systematic Botany Monographs, and provides funding for research, travel and convening annual scientific meetings.
Ferguson has extensive research experience in systematic botany, and her work particularly focuses on the phylogeny and taxonomy of the genus Phlox (Polemoniaceae). She also serves as the curator of the K-State Herbarium, a research natural history collection housing about 180,000 plant specimens from around the world, with a particular strength in the flora of the U.S. Great Plains, including important historical holdings dating to the late 1800s.