Beth McDonald

Machine Learning Engineer

Beth's research focuses on applications of machine learning to natural history collections, especially in the realms of computer vision and handwritten text digitization to aid scientific research. Beth was a Grace Hopper Celebration Scholar in 2019, and holds degrees from Northeastern Illinois University, New England Conservatory, and the University of Kentucky.

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Dr. Richard Ree

Curator of Flowering Plants; Co-Director of the Grainger Bioinformatics Center

I'm a curator in the Botany Department, and a lecturer/advisor in the Committee on Evolutionary Biology graduate program at the University of Chicago. My research focuses on the evolution and diversification of flowering plants, especially systematics, biogeography, and phylogenetic comparative methods.

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Dr. Matt von Konrat

Head of Botanical Collections; McCarter Collections Manager, Bryophytes and Pteridophytes

Kia ora! Greetings! Matt is originally from Aotearoa-New Zealand and relocated to Chicago in 2001. Matt has broad interests including collection management and digitization, harnessing the enthusiasm for community science and deepening the connection and engagement between the general public, including youth, and scientific collections. Matt’s research interest’s focus on bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts), particularly from the southern hemisphere, using an integrative taxonomic approach ranging from molecules to morphology.

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Yarency Rodriguez

Collections Assistant of Botanical Collections

Yarency works with the maintenance of the bryophyte and pteridophyte collections. Currently, she is engaged in the digitization of both of these collections, which involves imaging specimens and entering data from their labels and coordinating community scientist input as a goal of making the collections accessible not only to this institution, but worldwide.

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Heaven Wade

Research Assistant at the Field Museum

Heaven is a recent graduate of Denison University with a B.S. in Biochemistry. She is a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Post-Baccalaureate Students recipient currently working as a research assistant for the Botany Department at the Field Museum.