Richard Olmstead
olmstead@u.washington.edu

Education

B.A. SUNY, College of Forestry
Ph.D. Plant Systematics, University of Washington

Honors

NSF Young Investigator Award
“Faculty Recognition Award" and "Faculty Mentor Certificate of Appreciation"

Research

I am interested in reconstructing the “Tree of Life” of plants from the species at its tips to the primary lineages diverging from the main stem. Field collecting, herbarium study, and evidence from DNA sequences all contribute to understanding evolutionary relationships. I am also interested in documenting the plant biodiversity of the Pacific Northwest.

Publications

90 refeered publications and 8 book chapters. Recent examples include:

Beardsley, P. M., S. E. Schoenig, J. B. Whittall, and R. G. Olmstead. 2004 Patterns of evolution in Western North American Mimulus (Phrymaceae). Amer. J. Bot. 91: 474-489.

Olmstead, R. G. 2006. Multidimensional systematists: 21st Century systematics in a time of rapid progress. Syst. Bot. 31: 437-439.

Yuan, Y., Zhang, Z.-Y., and R. G. Olmstead. 2006. Tracking Ancient Polyploids: A retroposon reveals an extinct diploid ancestor in the polyploid ancestry of Belladonna. Mol. Biol. Evol. 23: 2263-2267.

Administration & Service

Curator of the UW Herbarium (Burke Museum)
Former Editor of Systematic Biology;

Highlights

- Instructor in Plant Systematics and evolution for 16 years; Herbarium Curator for past 11 years.
- As Curator conducts outreach to broader community through programs designed to involve the public in biodiversity surveys.
- Member UW Worldwide; UW - SU Undergraduate Exchange Program and PI NSF- IGERT: Multinational Collaboration on Challenges to the Environment
- Field studies and research collaborations with scientists throughout the world to better understand the origin of biodiversity.