The Shapes of Botany 

Dr. Cynthia Jones
University of Connecticut

Cynthia Jones is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut, where she also serves as the Director of the Plant Biodiversity Conservatory and Research Core.  After growing up in a mining town in the southern California desert, she obtained her undergraduate degree from UC Santa Barbara, a Master’s from UC Riverside, and her Ph.D. in Botany from UC Berkeley (1990).  Her research interests center on evolutionary and ecological processes underlying morphological and ecophysiological adaptations in response to abiotic environments, particularly in stems and leaves.

She teaches courses focused on plant morphology and structural diversity and in 2019 received two awards for Teaching Innovation from the University of Connecticut. She serves as an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Botany and is President-Elect of the Botanical Society of America.