Systematic Botany | 2019
Christopher Martine —Recipient of the 2018 Peter Raven Award
Abstract
Itwould seemthat thisawardwasmade forChristopherMartine (or vice versa). Chris loves botany, systematics in particular, and he has an overwhelming passion to engage others. Chris is an active, productive andnoted scholar. But, in addition tohisdeep interest in plant biology he exhibits a career-long passion for communicating science, and in particular, plant science, to others, especially to students and to the general public. Our communities are lucky to have people like Chris speaking for us. Chris combines personal charm and charisma with an intense drive to communicate his passion for plants and diversity. He loves people, he loves botany, and he loves teaching. All of those constitute an ideal combination of talents, especially when coupled with the drive to act. These personality characteristics were manifest pretty early. Without going all the way back to toddler-hood, we can find easy evidence that Chris in fact is (or was) the “leader of the band”. As an undergraduate (and Masters) student at Rutgers University, Chriswas the lead singer, and the chief songwriter, for Bunt, a rock and roll band in the New Jersey-New York City area. Bunt’s last album (The Pigeon Club), is good music, and is still available on the internet for serious collectors. Chris was and still is a “leader of the band”; he has just switched instruments and the ‘music.’ He likes appearing in front of people, and he has the personality to make such appearances successful. Luckily for us, he has turned those talents to promotion of botany and teaching. The happy truth for us is that he has been even more successful as a plant science professional than as an indie rocker. Of course, he might have made a lot more money in that other profession. Chris’s passion for our fields has already influenced a large number of people: students at Rutgers as an NSF-supported Teaching Fellow, at theUniversity of Connecticut as an awardwinning teaching assistant, and most notably in his positions as a professor at SUNY Plattsburgh, and now at Bucknell University. In recognition of these efforts, he has received a number of teaching awards, locally, and nationally aswell (e.g. Botanical Society of America Bessey Teaching Award in 2010; ASPT Innovations in Plant Systematics Education in 2014). He is a committed and successful teacher. His talks are legendary. And, themany invitations for special (e.g. grad student invited guest) or named lectures around the country, provide support