Dr. Karl J. Niklas was born in Manhattan, New
York, where he received a B.S. in mathematics from the City College
of the City of New York. He holds a M.S. and Ph.D. in plant biology
from the University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.
After accepting a Fulbright-Hayes Post-Doctoral Fellowship at
the University of London, Berbeck College, he returned to New York
to become the Curator of Paleobotany at the New York Botanical
Garden. Dr. Niklas joined the faculty of Cornell University in
1978. He is the current Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant
Biology. He is also a Visiting Erskine Fellow at the University
of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Dr. Niklas teaches courses
in introductory botany, plant evolution, and biomechanics.
Dr. Niklas research deals with a biophysical approach to plant
evolution and the quantification of the relationships among form,
function, and environment. He is the author of over 240 research
articles and three books, (Plant Biomechanics: an Engineering Approach
to Plant Form and Function, 1992; Plant Allometry: the Scaling
of Form and Process, 1994; and The Evolutionary Biology of Plants,
1997; all published by the University of Chicago Press).
Dr. Niklas is the recipient of numerous awards, including a John
S. Guggenheim Fellowship, the George Gaylord Simpson Prize of the
Peabody Museum, Yale University, the New York State University
Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Alexander
von Humboldt Stiftung Preis for Senior USA Scientists, the Jeanette
Siron Pelton Award for studies in plant morphogenesis, and the
Botanical Society of America’s Merit Award. He is the current
Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Botany.
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