Background & Research Interests: James graduated from Lynchburg College (Virginia) and came to Madison with an interest in floral fragrance, pollination biology, and orchid systematics. He has made several trips to Ecuador where he is studying the kinematics of rapid floral snap-traps in the Andean orchid genus Porroglossum. James’ research is grounded in a molecular phylogenetic reconstruction of the genus using NextGen DNA sequence data (specifically GBS). He is supported at UW by an Advanced Opportunity Fellowship and a NSF Predoctoral Graduate Research Fellowship.
Dissertation: “Molecular Systematics of Porroglossum Schltr. (Orchidaceae): Phylogenetics, Floral Snap-Trap Kinematics, and Fragrance”. Currently in progress.