Shirley Graham, PhD

Shirley Graham, PhD. has been a Curator at the Missouri Botanical Museum since 2002 following retirement after 38 years as a Professor of Botany-Biology at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. Her educational experience includes MS. and PhD. degrees from the University of Michigan, a Fulbright Scholarship in Botany to the University of Copenhagen, and a post-doctoral year at Harvard. The focus of her studies is the systematics of the tropical-subtropical Loosestrife family, the Lythraceae.  Her research expeditions, primarily in Mexico, Brazil, the Caribbean, and Africa, have led to additions to the world’s flora of a new family of plants, 3 new plant genera, and 42 new species. Her service to science and the scientific community has included roles as Treasurer and President of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, board member of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, and duty as a multi-term panel member on the National Science Foundation’s program in Systematics and Biodiversity