Oxford - Pearson Hall 128
Wednesday, April 26, 2023, 7 – 8pm

Dr. Liza Comita of the Yale School of the Environment will present a public lecture on her research.

Event Title: How disease begets diversity: Plant-pathogen interactions in tropical forests”.
Event Locator: 2023-ACJDRR

Dr. Comita will draw on her work research in both pristine and human-altered tropical forests. Her research combines extensive field studies of forest dynamics and ecological interactions with cutting-edge statistical techniques to produce novel insights into the processes driving tropical forest regeneration, diversity, and species distributions.

The event is free and open to the public.  A reception will follow in the Pearson main lobby. 

In addition to studying the ecology of tropical rain forests, Dr. Comita is also the Co-Director of the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture. She received her PhD from the University of Georgia and then did post-doctoral research at the University of Minnesota, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, and served on the faculty of The Ohio State University before joining the faculty of the Yale School of the Environment.  She has received early career awards from both the Ecological Society of America and the British Ecological Society. Her research has been supported by several grants from the National Science Foundation and has led to publication of over 80 articles in scientific journals.

Dr. Comita’s visit is sponsored by the Roger E. Wilson Lecture in Botany Fund, which was named for the former ecologist in Miami's Department of Botany and established in his memory by family, friends, and colleagues.  

On Thursday, April 27, Dr. Comita will also give the Biology Department seminar at 4:15 pm in 218 Pearson Hall.  That presentation is entitled, “Drought as a driver of tropical tree species distributions and dynamics.”

For those wishing to meet with Dr. Comita during her visit, please contact David Gorchov in the Department of Biology at GorchoDL@miamioh.edu.