BotanyAlexander Linan
2017 The Garden Club of America Fellowship in Tropical Botany

Alexander Linan is a PhD candidate at St. Louis University in affiliation with the Missouri Botanical Garden. His research combines population genomics, phylogenomics, and taxonomy in order to describe species, their evolutionary relationships, and species boundaries in members of the ebony and persimmon tree genus, Diospyros. He will focus on currently undescribed species of Diospyros endemic to Madagascar, and his research will provide insight into their extraordinary diversity in Madagascar. By naming and describing species, strategies can be developed to protect against, and properly control, illegal logging in this group of trees that are sought after for heartwood.
Funded by the Arundel Scholarship
The Garden Club of America Fellowship in Tropical Botany
To promote the preservation of tropical forests by enlarging the body of botanists with field experience.
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