Sept. 21, 2009
UWSP faculty members secure prestigious
National Science Foundation grant
Emmet Judziewicz, assistant professor of biology and forestry at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP), will offer his views on his Andean South American research on tunda bamboo at the second lecture of the College of Letters and Science Community/Campus lecture series.
Judziewicz’s lecture, “The Tunda Bamboos: Exploring the Sad, Wonderful Frontiers of Tropical Diversity,” is free and open to the public on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m. in Room 321 of the Collins Classroom Center.
He will share his findings on tunda bamboos (genus Aulonemia) that reach greatest diversity in cloud forests of Andean South America. Biologists previously believed there were approximately 30 species of tunda bamboos.
“My research has shown that there are not 30 tunda bamboo species but rather 60 species and counting,” said Judziewicz. “I am convinced that many more species await discovery in previously remote and inaccessible cloud forests in Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.”
Working with international biology colleagues and UWSP students and artists, he is describing new plant species, their disappearing habitats, and interactions between bamboos and birds, insects and even larger mammals such as bears.
Judziewicz came to UWSP in 2001. He holds a bachelor’s degree from UW-Parkside and a master’s degree and doctorate from UW-Madison.
tm/vc/LandS Judziewicz lecture 09
