AND PROGRAMS Meet Our Scientists

This year’s Scientist Lecture Series will feature research projects taking place at our Long Science Center. These lectures are open to the public and FREE.

Spring ephemeral wildflowers and their vulnerability to climate change

Thursday, May 25

11 a.m.-Noon, Reinberger Classroom, Corning Visitor Center Ben Lee, Ph.D.

MEET DR. BEN LEE

Dr. Ben Lee is a postdoctoral research fellow currently working at Holden Forests & Gardens, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and the University of Pittsburgh. He was awarded his PhD in 2020 from the University of Michigan, where he studied the effects of climate change on the recruitment of deciduous tree species in temperate forests. Dr. Lee continues to research the myriad effects on temperate forest communities and, in particular, understory wildflower species. His current research project at Holden investigates the role of climate change in shaping plant-fungal symbioses through the use of 120-year-old herbarium specimens collected across eastern North America.

Ecology, history and cultural knowledge working together to better understand the future of forests in the face of climate change

Friday, June 23

11 a.m-Noon, Reinberger Classroom, Corning Visitor Center

Hector Ortiz, Ph.D.

Meet Hector Ortiz

Hector Ortiz is originally from Sonora, Mexico. He has a bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology, with a focus on agronomy, agroecology, and botany. In Mexico after finishing his Master’s in Natural Resources and Arid Environments, Hector worked as consultant conservation scientist for the Agave program and leader of the plant pathology program of the National Institute of Research in Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock in northwest Mexico. After moving from Mexico to the US he was intern of the Conservation and Land Management Program of the Chicago Program of the Chicago Botanic Garden, and stations at the Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station. He completed his PhD in Wildlife and Wildlands Conservation at Brigham Young University, and currently works as a postdoctoral scientist at the Holden Arboretum.

The Effects of Floral Traits on Plant-Pollinator Interactions

Friday, July 28

11 a.m.-Noon, Reinberger Classroom, Corning Visitor Center

Rainee Kaczorowski, Ph.D.

From ants and seeds to botanical gardens and climate change: the story of an ecologist’s evolution

Thursday, August 24

11 a.m.-Noon, Reinberger

Chelsea Nicole Miller, Ph.D.