Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 12, in the Ina Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, 2900 Raguet St. Dr. Lisa Alexander, United States National Arboretum geneticist, will present “Improving the World One Plant at a Time.”
Alexander is a U.S. Department of Agriculture research geneticist working to improve woody ornamental landscape plants for the USNA. She received a Bachelor of Science in biology in 2005 from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she conducted research on American chestnut tree restoration. She received her doctoral degree in molecular genetics from Purdue University in 2010. Her dissertation focused on using molecular markers for oak seed orchard management.
Her current research focuses on breeding hydrangeas and other ornamental landscape species for improved disease resistance and cold tolerance, and introducing unique traits to popular ornamental species through hybridization and other advanced-breeding techniques. More information on Alexander’s work can be found online at http://www.usna.usda.gov/Research/sy-info.html.
The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each month at SFA’s Pineywoods Native Plant Center. A rare plant raffle will be held after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, but donations to the Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series fund are always appreciated.
Parking is available at the nearby Raguet Elementary School, 2428 Raguet St., with continual shuttle service to the Ina Brundrett Conservation Education Building.
For more information, call (936) 468-1832 or email grantdamon@sfasu.edu.
