Both students are veterans of the herbarium army and graduates. Sitting is Gretalyn Donato (soon to be apart of the USDA) and standing is Devika Jaikumar, who now works as an assistant curator of the Arnold arboretum herbarium, a subset of Harvard University.
Rutgers Chrysler Herbarium collections manager, Megan R. King, presents a talk on ‘How Collections-based Undergraduate Research Adapted to the Covid-19 Pandemic’.
Click here to view Megan King’s presentation.
This 15 minute presentation was delivered at the national Botany 2020 conference, held virtually between July 27 and July 31, 2020. The presentation goes over the size and contents of the herbarium collection, its many funded specimen imaging projects, current undergraduate research projects within the collection, and the valuable skills learned by undergraduates whom are involved in collections based work. To date the herbarium has welcomed just under 100 undergraduates to work at the Herbarium.
When Covid-19 hit New Jersey in March of 2020, the herbarium followed closure and protocols as did Rutgers. The 8 students enrolled in credit work during the Spring 2020 semester then had to convert over to virtual based work to complete their credit requirements, leading to substantial data in the collections’ online database. Watch the presentation to find out how they did it and what their research includes, as well as how students shared botanical learnings and furry co-workers!
Both students are veterans of the herbarium army and graduates. Sitting is Gretalyn Donato (soon to be apart of the USDA;) and standing is Devika Jaikumar, who now works as an assistant curator of the Arnold arboretum herbarium, a subset of Harvard University.
