George M. Diggs, Jr. (born 1952) holds a Ph.D. in biology from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

. He is Professor of Biology at

Austin College Austin College is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Sherman, Texas.Sherman, Texas Sherman is a city in and the county seat of Grayson County, Texas, United States. The city's population in 2020 was 43,645. It is one of the two principal cities in the Sherman–Denison metropolitan area, Sherman–Denison metropolitan statist ...

. He is a specialist in the

systematics Systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phy ...

of the plant genera ''

Comarostaphylis ''Comarostaphylis'' is a genus of shrubs in the heath family native to the Americas from California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It bor ...

and

Arctostaphylos ''Arctostaphylos'' (; from "bear" and "bunch of grapes") is a genus of plants comprising the manzanitas () and bearberries. There are about 60 species of ''Arctostaphylos'', ranging from ground-hugging arctic, coastal, and mountain shrub t ...

(Ericaceae).'' This recent research has focused on the floras of North Central and Eastern Texas. Diggs is Research Associate of the

Botanical Research Institute of Texas The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) is a botanical research institute located in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1987 for the herbarium and botanical library collections of Lloyd H. Shinners from Southern Met ...

(BRIT) in Fort Worth. In 1999 he was named Texas "Professor of the Year" by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. In 2000, Diggs was awarded the Donovan Stewart Correll Memorial Award for Scientific Writing by the Native Plant Society of Texas for his book ''Shinners & Mahlers Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas''. In 2006, Diggs and coauthors were awarded the Donovan Stewart Correll Memorial Award for Scientific Writing by the

Native Plant Society of Texas The Native Plant Society of Texas is a Texas not-for-profit conservation organization that promotes the "conservation, research and utilization of the native plants and plant habitats of Texas through education, outreach and example". The organi ...

for their book "Illustrated Flora of East Texas, Volume One" His current research project is the ''Illustrated Flora of East Texas,'' a 3-volume illustrated taxonomic treatment of the 3,402 species of vascular plants occurring in the East Texas Region. This project is a collaborative effort between the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) in Fort Worth and the Austin College Center for Environmental Studies.http://www.brit.org/research/floras/illustrated-texas-floras-project/ Illustrated Texas Floras Project home page

Selected publications

Shinners & Mahler’s Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas (Online Edition)

The Illustrated Flora of East Texas

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diggs, George 1952 births Living people Austin College faculty 21st-century American biologists