Arboretum announces new joint faculty appointments

The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University announces the appointment of two assistant professors who will teach and pursue research programs at the Arnold Arboretum as joint faculty with the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (OEB) at Harvard University. The arrival of Robin Hopkins and Elizabeth Wolkovich this January represents a significant step in expanding the Arboretum’s capacity for scholarship and its impact in the life sciences, initiated by the 2011 opening of the Weld Hill Research Building. Additionally, the appointments will play a central role in the Arboretum’s enhanced participation in educating undergraduates in the life sciences at Harvard.

Hopkins investigates the process of speciation in natural populations, a critical question in the field of evolutionary biology. To explore this subject as part of her Ph.D. studies at Duke University, she studied two species of the genus Phlox.

Wolkovich explores the influence of climate change on the assembly of plant communities. Integrating the disciplines of ecology, climatology, and phenology, she studies how plants have responded and may continue to respond to global warming.