Robin B. Foster is a botanist studying tropical forests. He co-originated the "tropical forest dynamics plot".[2]
Robin B. Foster | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Dartmouth College, Duke University |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Ecology |
Institutions | University of Chicago, Field Museum of Natural History |
Thesis | Seasonality of fruit production and seedfall in a tropical forest ecosystem in Panama[1] (1973) |
Doctoral advisor | Dwight Billings |
Doctoral students | Phyllis Coley[1] |
Foster graduated from Dartmouth College in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science in biology, and attained his Botany / Plant Ecology PhD in 1974 at Duke University under ecologist Dwight Billings.[1][3] In 1979, while at the University of Chicago, work on Barro Colorado Island with frequent coauthor Stephen P. Hubbell contributed to the development of the first tropical forest dynamics plot, leading to a global network of 18 such parcels.[4] The "audacious" plan was to periodically map and measure every tree within 50 hectares (120 acres).[4] As a plant ecologist with Conservation International he participated in studies to inform urgent conservation decisions as part of the first "Rapid Assessment Program".[5][6] During his extensive fieldwork in Perú, he contracted both malaria and hepatitis.[7] He has taught biology at the University of Chicago and served as a staff biologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.[3] At the Field Museum he founded the Live Photos of Plants project and Rapid Reference Collection.[8][9] In 2013, Foster was elected an honorary fellow of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC).[2]
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