Exploring Curation and Specimen Preparation in Natural History Collections- Curation of the Barbara Joe Hoshizaki Collections at University and Jepson Herbaria
Brent Mishler, Professor
Integrative Biology
Applications for Spring 2024 are closed for this project.
Herbaria are museums that house collections of preserved plants maintained for scientific purposes. For centuries, plant specimens of all kinds have been collected from near and far, mounted on herbarium sheets, labeled with pertinent data, and stored and maintained for use by the scientific community as well as the public and private sector researchers worldwide. Properly curated and protected plant specimens will last indefinitely, and the data from them can be used by generations of scholars to answer questions relating to taxonomy, conservation, climate change, plant morphology and phylogenetics, as well as creating a solid base for floras and plant inventories around the world.
This project involves the curation of an exceptional set of plant collections from Barbara Joe Hoshizaki (1928–2012). Barbara was a distinguished botanist and educator interested in ferns and their immediate relatives and is recognized as one of the leading fern horticulturists in the history of the United States. She lived in California, traveled widely, and collected ferns in their native habitats throughout the world. She collaborated with academic researchers as well as commercial and amateur horticulturalists and deeply understood the necessity of communicating with a wide range of people who all shared an interest in these plants. In that sense, she was the pre-eminent "bridge" between the horticultural and professional worlds. She is remembered especially for her two outstanding books on cultivating ferns, but also for her many papers in scientific journals on genera of commonly cultivated ferns, which she documented by the means of pressed and labeled voucher specimens. She had her own garden and greenhouse collections, most with provenance and locality data. She also had a large collection of pressed specimens of native ferns that she had collected in the many fern-rich countries she visited in North and South America, Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and Australasia. When she passed away, her husband and daughter understood the importance of her collections, and with the help of Dr. Alan Smith, Professor Emeritus, Research Botanist and the Curator of Ferns at University and Jepson Herbaria, donated all her collections to the University Herbarium.
This project is designed to support the incorporation of this priceless donation into the existing collections at UC/JEPS, which with their 200,000 pteridophyte specimens constitute one of the largest most important collections in the country. Dr. Smith has been and will continue to direct this integration process. The goal is to accomplish this task as soon as possible and establish the best source in the world for consulting horticulturally significant ferns.
Role: This position offers a unique opportunity to learn about working in a natural history museum, and in particular about horticultural ferns and their museum curation, taxonomy and specimen preparation. Activities in the museum will include mounting and repairing herbarium specimens, entering and updating specimen records in databases, creating labels and annotation labels for specimens and assistance in packing and filing specimens. The affiliation with the Mishler Lab will expose the apprentice to several aspects of research in a scientific laboratory dedicated to botany. Lab tasks will be in support of the ongoing research and general lab management needs.
Qualifications: Interests in botany, conservation biology or natural history topics. Ability to take on repetitive tasks with attention and accuracy. Good manual dexterity (glue, paper). Attention to detail. Basic proficiency with text documents and spreadsheets. The activities in the lab will require excellent organizational skills, excellent attention to detail, ability to follow instructions fully and exactly, ability to formulate and ask questions, excellent ability to maintain focus while doing repetitive tasks, excellent ability to catch mistakes.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Sonia Nosratini, Staff Researcher
Hours: to be negotiated
Related website: https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/
Related website: https://bryolab.berkeley.edu/