KU CONNECTION

KU paleobotanist earns national acclaim

Edith Taylor’s work takes her on six-week, bone-chilling treks through Antarctica, where she hunts fossil plants that thrived on the continent from 240 million to 260 million years ago.

“At that time there were forests growing in Antarctica,” said Taylor, KU professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior curator of paleobotany. “I’ve been particularly interested in what the plants can tell us about past climates there. How warm was the climate? How were the plants living with 24 hours of darkness in the winter and 24 hours of light in the summer?”

For her research, Taylor received the prestigious Merit Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Botanical Society of America, a group formed in 1893 to promote the study of plants.

The honor, in recognition of Taylor’s “outstanding contributions to the science of botany,” was announced July 11 in Chicago at Botany & Plant Biology 2007, the largest gathering of plant scientists in the country.

“For over two decades Taylor has brought to light the diversity of plants once living in present day Antarctica,” the society said in a statement. “The wealth of information from these studies has shed light on plant diversity at high latitudes in the southern hemisphere, plant biogeography and evolution, and climate history.”

Such accolades have been hard-won. For Taylor, her time spent looking for petrified fossil plants in Antarctica has been a mix of rewarding scientific investigation and personal challenge due to extreme climate. Read more.