Burpee Post-Doctoral Fellow in Botany at Bucknell University, Department of Biology
Tanisha M. Williams has always had a love for plants and never looked back after a study abroad experience in the Amazonian rainforest of Peru! Her master’s work used population genetic methods to study the hybridization patterns of three Populus species found throughout California and Nevada. Her dissertation work took her to South Africa to examine the impacts of climate change on Pelargonium plants using herbarium records, common garden experiments, and species distribution models. She was awarded a U.S. Fulbright grant to conduct her dissertation research at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa. She is also a Fulbright Alumni Ambassador. Dr. Williams is currently working on several projects as a postdoctoral fellow. Some of her research includes understanding how biogeographic barriers impact species distributions of an Australian legume, updating the conservation status using population genomics methods of a grass found at the edge of its range in Pennsylvania, and working with a dynamic team to examine the role indigenous peoples have on plant genetics, ecology, and how this relationship shapes anthropology in the Northern Territory of Australia. Dr. Williams has a passion for communicating science and the importance of botanical and international research, and this includes volunteering and advocacy, even at the governmental sector by participating in Congressional Visits Days in Washington, DC. She holds degrees from Pennsylvania State University (BS), California State University Los Angeles (MS), and the University of Connecticut (PhD).