After going to Cal as an undergrad I got my PhD at the University of Utah in 2004. I lived in Peru for much of my PhD work, conducting field work near Iquitos Peru, in some of the most species-rich forests on earth. I studied the evolution of habitat specialization by plants to different soils and the role of herbivores and plant defenses in influencing this process. I continued this work for my postdoc at the University of Michigan Society of Fellows and then was hired by UC Berkeley in 2007. I have continued my work on tropical diversity and also have built up a research program the evolution of Protium (Burseraceae) as a model system to understand speciation and the role of biotic interactions in diversification. At Cal I have taught Ecosystems of California for 15 years, a field course with 20 field days and many overnight camping trips. I love undergraduate teaching. In the past decade I have become very involved in faculty governance and have served in the Academic Senate as Chair of CAPRA and on the divisional council. I was Equity Advisor in IB for about 13 years. I am on the board of the Berkeley Faculty Association.
For full research description, please visit Paul's Faculty Profile.
speciation, plant ecology, plant evolutionary biology, floristics and phytogeography
