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About Us
Research Ranch Advisory Team

Dr. Steve McLaughlin received an interdisciplinary B.S. degree ("Ecological Systems and Problems") from the University of Washington in 1972; he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1978 with a major in Botany and minor in Watershed Management. He spent his entire professional career (1978-2006) at the University of Arizona in the Office of Arid Lands Studies and the Department of Plant Sciences, both in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. During the last 5 years he also served as the Curator of the University of Arizona Herbarium, when he was responsible for the design and relocation of the Herbarium from its cramped location in the basement of the Shantz Building to Herring Hall, remodeled specifically to serve as the home for the Vascular Plant Herbarium, Mycological Herbarium, and Campus Arboretum. His research included numerous floristic inventories from the southwestern United States, analytical studies in floristic plant geography, research and development of potential new crops, collaborative drug discovery work and phytochemical investigations, plant taxonomy, and various ecological studies. He taught graduate and undergraduate courses in economic botany, crop ecology, and systematic botany. He also conducted research and taught in various Latin American countries, including Argentina, Chile, Honduras, and Mexico. He and his wife and close colleague, Janice Bowers, currently live in the Owens Valley area of the Eastern Sierra Nevada of California.