Presentations

This is a page where I'll put up powerpoint or pdf files from presentations I've given, for your edification and/or amusement. For the most part they should make sense even without me standing up in front of you talking, though I like to think the talking part adds something to the experience. Presentations are listed in reverse chronological order. Note that some of the powerpoint files will not be formatted correctly unless you happen to have Igino Marini's Fell Types installed. Also, powerpoint files often have associated notes that may provide some illumination.


   Presentations for Academic Societies

Further adventures in the phylogenetics of Boechereae (Brassicaceae)
A talk presented at the 2010 Botany Meetings in Providence, Rhode Island. An updated version of the talk given for the 2009 Botany Meetings, with about twice as much data.

From one, many: divergent and reticulate speciation in Boechera fendleri s.l. (Brassicaceae)
Another talk presented at the 2010 Botany Meetings in Providence, Rhode Island.

Waking up from a taxonomist's nightmare: progress towards a phylogeny of Boechera (Brassicaceae)
A talk presented at the 2009 Botany Meetings in Snowbird, Utah.

Identification of Leucaena using SAIKS (SLIKS-Alike Interactive Key Software)
A poster presented at the 2008 Botany Meetings in Vancouver, British Columbia. It has also made appearances at the state meetings of the New Mexico & Arizona native plant societies (Sep 2008 & Feb 2009).

Species Concepts: what is the problem & why is it still here?
A talk presented at the 2007 Willi Hennig Society meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. A rather disjointed thing in hindsight. Oh well.

Ecology of C3 and C4 Grasses (Poaceae) in the United States: a Phylogenetically Controlled Analysis
A poster for the Botany Meetings in Chico, CA, beginning of August, 2006. This is an extension of a class project for Evolutionary Ecology, taught by Dr. Kathy Hanley.

Convergent fruit evolution in Athysanus and Thysanocarpus (Brassicaceae)
A presentation for the Botany Meetings in Chico, CA, beginning of August, 2006.

   Presentations for Other Groups

Finding rare plants
Presented at the October 2019 meeting of the Las Cruces chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico.k

My spiny friends in the Peloncillo and Chiricahua Mountains
Presented at Heritage Days in Rodeo, New Mexico, September 2019.

Barren, Wild, and Worthless: evaluating desert plant communities
Presented at the state meeting of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico in Santa Fe, Aug 2019. The title is based on a book you should bread, by Susan Tweit: Barren, Wild, and Worthless: Living in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Finding rare plants from aerial imagery
Presented as a guest lecture for the Rangeland Plants (RGSC 316) course at NMSU, October 2017. Partially based on a previous presentation: Botany from a Boeing.

Botany from a Boeing
Presented at the March 2017 meeting of the Las Cruces chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico and, in slightly modified form, at the February 2017 meeting of the Otero chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico. The title is based on a previous presentation by Kelly Allred: Botany from a Buick.

How do we understand plant communities?
Presented at the state meeting of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico in September 2016.

Ferns of the Organ Mountains
Presented at the state meeting of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico in September 2016. Modifed from the 2006 version below.

Lizards of New Mexico
Presented at the October 2015 meeting of the Las Cruces chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico.

Rare plants and LCDO
Presented in September 2015 at Las Cruces District Office, Bureau of Land Management.

Gypsophilia: an introduction to gypsum and the plants that call it home
Presented at the November 2014 meeting of the Las Cruces chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico and, in slightly modified forms, at the January 2014 meeting of the Otero chapter of the NPSNM and at the October 2013 meeting of the Gila chapter of the NPSNM.

Understanding variation in plant communities, with examples from the northern Black Range of New Mexico.
Presented in May 2014 at San Juan Community College and, in slightly different form for the April 2014 meeting of the Prescott chapter of the Arizona Native Plant Society.

The low-elevation flora of southern New Mexico
Presented at the March 2014 meeting of the Las Cruces chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico and, in another version in March 2015, but I don't recall where.

Sexual behavior in plants: autoeroticism, ménages á trois, and other deviations
Presented at the 2011 state meeting of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico, and again for the September 2011 meeting of the Las Cruces chapter thereof.

Why do names change? Examples from Brassicaceae
Presented to the Santa Fe chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico, January 2011. This is basically a modified version of the November 2009 talk. I'm not sure if it's better or worse.

An overview of the low-elevation flora of southwestern New Mexico
Presented at the Third Natural History of the Gila Symposium, 2010.

The "how" and "why" of botanical nomenclature
A talk for the Las Cruces chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico, November 2009.

Flora of New Mexico, past and present
A talk presented for the Gila chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico in February 2009 and for the Natural History Museum of Las Cruces in March 2009.

The saga of Boechera fendleri: one name, how many species?
Presented at the annual meeting of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico in Las Cruces, 2008. Almost everything in this is outdated.

Flora of New Mexico
A talk for Las Cruces' Academy for Learning in Retirement, mid-2007, giving a little bit of history of NM botanizing & some plant communities & species throughout the state, from low to high elevations. Not much text, mostly pretty pictures.

Group selection, inclusive fitness, and ants
Brown bag talk for the NMSU Department of Biology, February 2007. Since then, a number of papers in favor of group selection over inclusive fitness have come out.

Botanizing in Baja California
An overview of my October 2006 trip to Baja California with Rich Spellenberg, Al Kruger, & the Killingbecks. Presented for the Las Cruces Chapter of the New Mexico Native Plant Society, February 2007.

Ferns of New Mexico
A talk for the Santa Fe Chapter of the New Mexico Native Plant Society, September, 2006. An expansion on the earlier Organ Mts. fern talk, for the most part. There is at least one factual error; see if you can find it!

Species: a Wittgensteinian approach
Brown bag talk for the NMSU Department of Biology, March 2006. One of my early "a powerpoint presentation is just a written paper but, you know, in powerpoint" talks.

Ferns of the Organ Mountains
This is a talk I gave to the Las Cruces Chapter of the New Mexico Native Plant Society in February, 2006.

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