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Center for Tree Science Staff

The Center for Tree Science Collaborative Network encompasses scientific collaborators from gardens, universities, industry, and nonprofit organizations.  The scientific output of the Center is shaped by Arboretum staff, Affiliate specialists, Fellows, and Steering Committee, as well as collaborators worldwide.

Arboretum Staff

With full-time research staff in arboriculture, forest ecology, conservation biology, evolution and systematics, just to name a few topics, the Center for Tree Science provides an exciting and engaging place to study trees and everything about them.  Working together as a team on major projects while honing our in-depth knowledge of specialized expertise, our scientists are leading the way towards a greater understanding of trees and how to manage and conserve them.

Affiliate specialists

These scientists bring their expertise to the Center for Tree Science through contract work or special relationships established between The Morton Arboretum and their home institutions.

Lindsay Darling, Chicago Regional Trees Initiative GIS and Data Specialist

Chad M. Rigsby, Research Scientist and Technical Support Specialist, Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories 

 

Fellows

While the Center for Tree Science has a powerful team of scientists working on a broad range of topics, we can’t do it alone.  In order to amplify our efforts, we have established a proposal-based Fellowship program for professionals and students of all kinds to collaborate and contribute to tree science.   From high school students to senior scientists, we view these fellowships as a vital way to provide enlightening opportunities and synergistic advances that are mutually beneficial for the Fellow, our staff, and our mission to study trees.

Stephanie Adams, University of Florida

M. Ross Alexander, Chicago Wilderness

Richard Condit, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama

Ray Dybzinski, Loyola University

Bob Fahey, University of Connecticut

Emily Griffoul, former Morton Arboretum Research Assistant

Jill Hamilton, North Dakota State University

Kaitlyn Pike, DePaul University

Lane Scher, Duke University

Shannon Still, UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden

 

Steering Committee

The Center for Tree Science strives to have a leading vision and strategy for tree science, locally and globally, in terms of fundamental scientific breakthroughs to practical solutions to real problems.  In order to do this, we rely upon a steering committee composed of the world’s leading experts on tree biology, arboreta, and the management of trees.  The steering committee has played a critical role in the formulation and development of the CTS and continues to provide valuable and insightful feedback on its initiatives.  Several of our steering committee are also our direct collaborators on a wide variety of projects.

 

Robert Bartlett, Jr.
Chairman and CEO
Bartlett Tree Expert Company
Stamford, Connecticut

Jeannine Cavender-Bares
Associate Professor
University of Minnesota, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
Minneapolis, Minnesota          

Jin Chen
Director
Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden
Yunnan, China  

Peter Crane
Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Professor of Botany
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
New Haven, Connecticut

Gerard T. Donnelly
President and CEO
The Morton Arboretum
Lisle, Illinois

Kelby Fite
Vice President of Research, Bartlett Tree Research Laboratory
Bartlett Tree Expert Company
Charlotte, North Carolina  

William (Ned) Friedman
Director of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts    

Matt Kramer
Research Director
Ball Horticultural Company
West Chicago, Illinois        

Greg Mueller
Vice President, Science and Academic Programs
Chicago Botanic Garden
Glencoe, Illinois              

Sara Oldfield
IUCN SSC Group Secretary/Chair and Biodiversity Consultant
Cambridge, United Kingdom

Richard Olsen
Director
The United States National Arboretum
Washington, DC

Remy Petit
Director of UMR Biogeco Research Unit, Population Geneticist
L'institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)
Cestas-Pierroton, France

Jeanne Romero-Severson
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
University of Notre Dame 
Notre Dame, Indiana

Dan Struve
Professor Emeritus, Horticulture Ohio State
The Ohio State University 
Columbus, Ohio