 | In his role as director of Yale's Marsh Botanical Garden, Timothy Nelson will work to strengthen both the facility's collections and its research and educational missions. |
Timothy Nelson, an expert in plant developmental biology, has been named the next director of Yale's Marsh Botanical Garden.
Nelson -- a professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB) -- succeeds Professor Mary Helen Goldsmith, who stepped down this year after serving as director since 1986. Nelson was appointed to the three-year term by President Richard C. Levin.
The Marsh Botanical Garden is an eight-acre property located on a hillside between Prospect and Mansfield streets. Yale acquired the site in 1899 when paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh (B.A. 1860) bequeathed his home, grounds, greenhouses and plant collections to the University. The botanical garden was designed by landscape architect Beatrix Farrand during the 1920s and 1930s as part of her overall design for the entire Yale campus.
Today, the Marsh Botanical Garden supports research and instruction by faculty in MCDB, the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. It is also a public greenspace, designed to educate visitors about plants and ecology.
As director, Nelson plans to continue the work begun by Goldsmith to enhance and improve the outdoor collection. He will also work with a steering committee of Yale faculty and other expert advisers to develop a long-range plan for strengthening the garden's core missions.
"These improvements will require an enhancement of staffing, improvement of facilities and grounds, development of the plant collections and an increase in awareness of the garden's resources on the part of the Yale community," says Nelson.
"The Marsh Botanical Garden is an important research and educational resource within Yale and can serve, as well, as a crown jewel of greenspace as Yale develops up Prospect Street," he adds.
A Yale faculty member since 1984, Nelson focuses his research on the development of leaves, particularly the regulation of genes for carbon fixation and pattern formation for veins. He earned a B.A. with highest honors at the University of California at San Diego in 1974 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Stanford University in 1980. Before coming to Yale, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at Berkeley 1980-1984.
The author or co-author of over 55 book chapters and journal articles, Nelson served from 1989 to 1999 as co-editor of The Plant Cell and is currently on the advisory board of Plant Molecular Biology. He received the McKnight Individual Research Award in Plant Biology 1986-1989 and a Yale Junior Faculty Fellowship in 1987-1988.
His professional affiliations include the ,American Society of Plant Biologists, the International Society for Plant Molecular Biology and the Maize Genetics Cooperative, where he chaired the steering committee in 1993. He served on review panels for the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Energy.
In a letter announcing Nelson's appointment, Provost Alison Richard praised Goldsmith's accomplishments as director of the Marsh Botanical Garden, saying, "President Levin and I recognize her tireless efforts on behalf of this unique educational natural resource. The University is grateful for her wise leadership."
Noting Nelson's plans to continue the improvements to the garden begun under Goldsmith and to strengthen the facility's educational and research missions, the Provost urged members of the biological science and environmental studies communities to "join him in this important effort."
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