Chair & Curator, Vascular Plants, Department of Botany, Field Museum.

B.A., University of Northern Iowa, 1969.
M.A., University of Northern Iowa, 1972.
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 1976.

Visiting Professor, Universidad Antenor Orrego, Trujillo, Peru.
Honorary Professor, Universidad Nacional de Cajamarca, Cajamarca, Peru.
Honorary Professor, Universidad Nacional San Agustin, Arequipa, Peru.
Honorary Professor, Universidad Nacional de Tumbes, Tumbes, Peru.
Honorary Professor, Universidad Ricardo Palma, Lima, Peru.
Research Associate, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri.
Research Associate, Museo de Historia Natural "Javier Prado", Lima, Peru.
Flora Neotropica Commission Member.
Visiting Professor and Curator of Beal-Darlington Herbarium, Michigan State University, 1991-1992.

Systematics of Neotropical Asteraceae and Nolanaceae/floras of Chile and Peru/coastal South American ecology and biogeography/floristic inventories, databases and information management.

My research program involves exploration, description, systematic study and conservation efforts within the New World tropics. Projects involve the study of flowering plants in diverse habitats in the Andean Cordillera, ranging from the hyper-arid deserts of coastal Chile and Peru to mid-elevation mountain forests of northern Peru, and ultimately high-elevation plant communities known as páramos, jalca or puna throughout the Cordillera. Recently, collecting efforts have focused on a large tract of Selva Alta a tall forest formation at lower elevations in Amazonian Peru. The objectives of these various studies differ but the botanical information they yield is used to generate floristic inventories of threatened habitats or detailed morphological studies on specific taxonomic groups. This information also allows testing hypotheses of evolutionary relationships and historical biogeography. All projects are conducted in collaboration with local scientific institutions and provide opportunities for interaction and training.

In concert with the data-gathering activities, new methods of information management and dissemination are being pursued. In May 1995, a World Wide Web homepage was launched on the INTERNET and designated "ABIS" for the Andean Botanical Information System. ABIS is still "under construction" but currently the site provides electronic access to collection information from the floristic and systematic investigations of the flowering plants of Andean South America, including literature, floristic data in a hierarchial browser, and color images of plants and habitats.