Systematics of Boraginaceae. This is an ongoing project.
Focus is on embryological and phytochemical studies on various taxa of this
family. For details see publications.
Systematics of Boraginaceae. This is an ongoing project.
Focus is on embryological and phytochemical studies on various taxa of this
family. For details see publications.
Cytoembryology and cytotaxonomy of Liliaceae: This
is also an ongoing project on various taxa ( wild and cultivated) of this
family. Current focus is Ornithogalum and Tulipa. For
details see publications.
Reproductive Biology of Populus
tremuloides Michx.
This project began in spring 1993, with an exciting discovery of
bisexuality in Quaking Aspens . The
study involved physiological, morphological, and developmental aspects of male,
female and the bisexual aspens. The
physiological aspects of this study have involved measuring sex hormones in the
various parts of male, female and the bisexual trees through radio-immunoassays
and GC-MS. The developmental studies have involved studying the development of
flowers, male and the female gametes and the seed development. The morphological
studies have involved study of both vegetative and reproductive structures.
For details on this project see publications.
Vascular plant checklist for Two Moon
Park near Billings Montana: This
project began in spring 1998 and was completed in summer 2000.
The project involved collecting, identifying, describing, photographing
and preparing herbarium specimens of all plants found in the study area (Two
Moon Park) over a three year period.
This information is valuable to taxonomists, ecologists and others in
this region. For details on
this project see publications.
Flight Bee-Havior and
Root growth Adaptation in Reduced and Enhanced Gravity: This
was one of the 48 projects selected in NASA’s 1999 national competition under
Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program. Two of our students Aimee Crowley and Heather Stein carried
this experiment on the Vomit Comet. Montana
Space Grants Consortium funded the entire project that covered two weeks of
living expenses and airfare to Houston, Texas for all participants.
In addition, both our students were awarded $500.00 stipend through ARES
program for conducting the follow up research on root growth part of the
project. This was a first
collaborative project between MSU Bozeman, Dull Knife Memorial College and MSUB;
Two engineering
students from MSU Bozeman built the apparatus for two separate experiments that
were carried on KC-135A. Besides the research, this event was covered on national and
local television and other news media as “onions in space”. The results of this study were presented at the annual
meeting of the Montana Academy of Sciences with students as co-presenters.
For details of this projects see flying onions.