Jan Salick
Jan Salick is an American botanist who researches the interaction between humans and plants (ethnobotany) and conservation biology. Her specialisms include alpine environments, climate change, indigenous peoples and traditional knowledge. She is a past-president of the Society for Economic Botany and holds their Distinguished Economic Botanist award. As of 2017, she is the Curator of Ethnobotany at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Education
Salick gained her BA at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1973 and her MS from Duke University in 1977, both in biology. Her PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology was from Cornell University in 1983,[1][2] where she was a student of Richard B. Root.[3] Her thesis, on the crop plant, cassava (Manihot esculenta),[1] is entitled "Agroecology of the Cassava Lacebug".[4]
Career and research
Salick worked at the New York Botanical Garden (1983–89), rising to Assistant Curator. She then joined the Department of Plant Biology at Ohio University (1989–2000) as assistant and then associate professor of tropical ecology and ethnobotany. She has since been Curator of Ethnobotany at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis,[1][2] and is also an adjunct professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis.[5]
One of the focuses of her recent research has been the alpine environment of the Himalayas, and in particular, the effects of climate change and human activities.[6] She worked with partners in China, Nepal and Bhutan to establish the Himalayan team of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA), an international network that aims to document plant life diversity in alpine regions globally and to study how it is affected by climate change over time.[7][8]
Plants used in traditional medicine and other forms of traditional knowledge are another interest.[6] With Wayne Law, Salick documented how the cotton-headed snow lotus (Saussurea laniceps), a rare species of Himalayan snow lotus used in traditional Chinese medicine and also often collected by tourists, has decreased in height over a century, apparently in response to pressure from humans selectively picking taller plants.[9][10] She has also published on the impact of traditional agricultural and forestry practices, for example, among the Yanesha (or Amuesha) people living on the upper Amazon in Peru.[11]
Salick served as a member of the International Council for Science (ICSU) Study Group on sustainable development in 2001–2.[12] In 2007, with Anja Byg, she organized a symposium on climate change and indigenous peoples, held at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Oxford University, UK.[13] In 2009, with Nancy Ross, she edited a special edition of the journal Global Environmental Change entitled "Traditional Peoples and Climate Change".[14] She co-edited (with Katie Konchar and Mark Nesbitt) the 2014 textbook, Curating Biocultural Collections, published by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which won the Postgraduate Textbook Prize of the Royal Society of Biology in 2015.[15]
Awards and honors
Salick is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1992)[16] and the Linnean Society of London.[1][12] She served as president of the Society for Economic Botany in 1997–98[17] and received the society's Distinguished Economic Botanist award in 2014.[18] In 2020 Salick was awarded the David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration by the National Tropical Botanical Garden.[19]
Selected publications
Books
- J Salick, K Konchar, M Nesbitt, eds. Curating Biocultural Collections (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; 2014) (ISBN 1842464981)
- J Salick, RK Moseley. Khawa Karpo: Tibetan Traditional Knowledge and Biodiversity Conservation (Missouri Botanical Garden Press; 2012) (ISBN 1935641069}
Research papers
- Byg A, Salick J (2009). "Local perspectives on a global phenomenon—climate change in Eastern Tibetan villages". Global Environmental Change. 19 (2): 156–166. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.01.010.
- Law W, Salick J (July 2005). "Human-induced dwarfing of Himalayan snow lotus, Saussurea laniceps (Asteraceae)". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102 (29): 10218–20. Bibcode:2005PNAS..10210218L. doi:10.1073/pnas.0502931102. PMC 1177378. PMID 16006524. doi:10.1073/pnas.0502931102
- Salick J, Cellinese N, Knapp S (1997). "Indigenous diversity of cassava: generation, maintenance, use and loss among the Amuesha, Peruvian upper Amazon". Economic Botany. 51: 6–19. doi:10.1007/bf02910400. S2CID 24382799.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
References
- ^ a b c d Conservation Forum Program (PDF), Conservation Forum, 2001, retrieved 5 December 2017
- ^ a b Jan Salick: Curator of Ethnobotany, Missouri Botanical Garden and Professor, Biology Department, Washington University & University of Missouri (PDF), University of Wisconsin–Madison, retrieved 5 December 2017
- ^ Eminent Ecologist Award (PDF), Ecological Society of America, 2003, retrieved 5 December 2017
- ^ "Distinguished Economic Botanist Award", Economic Botany, 68 (4): 365–70, 2014, doi:10.1007/s12231-014-9289-0, S2CID 29270486
- ^ Jan Salick: Honorary Adjunct Professor of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, retrieved 5 December 2017
- ^ a b Research Staff, Missouri Botanical Garden, retrieved 5 December 2017
- ^ Elizabeth Arnold (19 February 2006), Breathless Work in the High Himalayas, NPR, retrieved 5 December 2017
- ^ Persons involved in GLORIA, Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments, retrieved 5 December 2017
- ^ James Gorman (5 July 2005), "The Case of the Shrinking Lotus", New York Times, retrieved 5 December 2017
- ^ Law W, Salick J (2005), "Human-induced dwarfing of Himalayan snow lotus, Saussurea laniceps (Asteraceae)", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102 (29): 10218–10220, Bibcode:2005PNAS..10210218L, doi:10.1073/pnas.0502931102, PMC 1177378, PMID 16006524
- ^ "Indigenous diversity of cassava: generation, maintenance, use and loss among the Amuesha, Peruvian upper Amazon", Economic Botany, 51: 6–19, 1997, doi:10.1007/bf02910400, S2CID 24382799
{{citation}}
: Unknown parameter|authors=
ignored (help) - ^ a b Science, traditional knowledge and sustainable development (PDF), UNESCO, 2002, retrieved 5 December 2017
- ^ Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change (PDF), Tyndall Centre, May 2007, retrieved 5 December 2017
{{citation}}
: Unknown parameter|authors=
ignored (help) - ^ Global Environmental Change Volume 19, Issue 2, Pages 137-316 (May 2009), Elsevier, 2009, retrieved 5 December 2017
- ^ Book Awards Winners 2015, Royal Society of Biology, 2015, retrieved 6 December 2017
- ^ Cynthia Lollar, ed. (1992), "New AAAS Fellows Elected as Distinguished Scientists", Science, 255 (5052): 1726, doi:10.1126/science.255.5052.1726, JSTOR 2876646
- ^ Presidents, Society for Economic Botany, retrieved 5 December 2017
- ^ Distinguished Economic Botanists, Society for Economic Botany, retrieved 5 December 2017
- ^ "The David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration" (PDF). ntbg.org. 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
External links
- Jan Salick publications indexed by Google Scholar
- Missouri Botanical Garden
- Living people
- 21st-century American botanists
- American women botanists
- Economic botanists
- Ethnobotanists
- Women conservationists
- American conservationists
- University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
- Cornell University alumni
- Duke University alumni
- Missouri Botanical Garden people
- Washington University in St. Louis faculty
- 21st-century American women