Jim currently serves as a professor and graduate program director for the biology department at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro (UNCG).
He earned a BS in Forestry at the University of Maine (1982) and an M.S. (1985), M.Phil. (1985) and PhD (1987) from Yale University in what was then the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (now the Yale School of the Environment). He completed postdoctoral research at Stanford and Harvard Universities. He joined the faculty at Syracuse University in 1990 building a career in plant physiological ecology including winning an NSF Young [Presidential] Investigator award and several other grants.
From 1995-1996 he served as the NSF Program Officer for Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology. After returning to Syracuse University, he then moved into the chief research officer positions at the Desert Research Institute, then the University of Missouri and then Rice University. He was then dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences at VCU and then served as provost at Northern Arizona University, the University of Arkansas, and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro (UNCG).
He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018 for his contributions to plant physiological ecology and for building institutional and statewide research infrastructure. He was also appointed by the Director of the National Science Foundation in 2024 to their Congressionally mandated Committee on Equal Opportunity in Science and Engineering, which, surprisingly, still exists. He will be recognized as one of two (there are two a year) Distinguished Alumni of Yale University's School of the Environment at the School's 125th reunion in October, 2025
Jim has been the principal or co-principal investigator on approximately $260 million dollars of research, education, and research infrastructure [both institutional and statewide] gifts, grants, and contracts. He published 80 research papers, cited just under 10,000 times focusing on how plants, herbivores, and/or ecosystems respond to environmental stress/change despite spending 25 years as a senior administrator. He also publishes a blog on this website about higher education, being neurodiverse, or other topics that has had approximately 17,000 unique visitors since it started in June 2022. Graduate students currently in his lab are working on two projects: 1) How microplastics in soil affect the interactions between plants, herbivores, and their parasitoids, and 2) how ecotypic variation in longleaf pine might be used to strengthen restoration efforts of the biodiverse longleaf pine ecosystems. He mentored/is mentoring 70 undergraduates and 22 graduate student and postdocs.
Jim’s passion now is teaching and mentoring undergraduates and graduate students. He has taught approximately 1,000 students since Fall 2021 in courses at every level and can’t help but feel that every one of those students is part of his extended family. He is committed to the mission of public institutions and the role that faculty can play in transforming student lives. UNCG’s student government association made him their sole nominee for the 2024-2025 academic year for the UNC System’s William Friday Lifetime Achievement Award aimed at recognizing extraordinary service to students. He didn’t win. The award usually goes to chancellors, vice chancellor or deans. But, being surprised that he was nominated by students for this honor was like winning the Nobel Prize at this stage of his career.
Jim will move into phased retirement in Fall 2025. He is a person with autism and most always would rather be with a dog. He hopes to focus on writing, speaking, and volunteering (with his therapy dog, Brea) on issues related to navigating academe as a neurodiverse person in this next chapter of his career.
He has been married to his wife Adele for 27 years who is retired from her role implementing and supporting electronic medical record systems and has a stepson (Cecil) who is a musician. Jim’s interests include playing guitar and piano, bonding with the two dogs that adopted him and Adele, and kayaking on Lake Jeanette while thanking the herons and other birds for sharing their home. He is originally from Pittsburgh and an avid Steeler and Penguin fan. In fact, his major claim to fame was being present in the stands at the game where Franco Harris made the "immaculate reception."
He earned a BS in Forestry at the University of Maine (1982) and an M.S. (1985), M.Phil. (1985) and PhD (1987) from Yale University in what was then the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (now the Yale School of the Environment). He completed postdoctoral research at Stanford and Harvard Universities. He joined the faculty at Syracuse University in 1990 building a career in plant physiological ecology including winning an NSF Young [Presidential] Investigator award and several other grants.
From 1995-1996 he served as the NSF Program Officer for Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology. After returning to Syracuse University, he then moved into the chief research officer positions at the Desert Research Institute, then the University of Missouri and then Rice University. He was then dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences at VCU and then served as provost at Northern Arizona University, the University of Arkansas, and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro (UNCG).
He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018 for his contributions to plant physiological ecology and for building institutional and statewide research infrastructure. He was also appointed by the Director of the National Science Foundation in 2024 to their Congressionally mandated Committee on Equal Opportunity in Science and Engineering, which, surprisingly, still exists. He will be recognized as one of two (there are two a year) Distinguished Alumni of Yale University's School of the Environment at the School's 125th reunion in October, 2025
Jim has been the principal or co-principal investigator on approximately $260 million dollars of research, education, and research infrastructure [both institutional and statewide] gifts, grants, and contracts. He published 80 research papers, cited just under 10,000 times focusing on how plants, herbivores, and/or ecosystems respond to environmental stress/change despite spending 25 years as a senior administrator. He also publishes a blog on this website about higher education, being neurodiverse, or other topics that has had approximately 17,000 unique visitors since it started in June 2022. Graduate students currently in his lab are working on two projects: 1) How microplastics in soil affect the interactions between plants, herbivores, and their parasitoids, and 2) how ecotypic variation in longleaf pine might be used to strengthen restoration efforts of the biodiverse longleaf pine ecosystems. He mentored/is mentoring 70 undergraduates and 22 graduate student and postdocs.
Jim’s passion now is teaching and mentoring undergraduates and graduate students. He has taught approximately 1,000 students since Fall 2021 in courses at every level and can’t help but feel that every one of those students is part of his extended family. He is committed to the mission of public institutions and the role that faculty can play in transforming student lives. UNCG’s student government association made him their sole nominee for the 2024-2025 academic year for the UNC System’s William Friday Lifetime Achievement Award aimed at recognizing extraordinary service to students. He didn’t win. The award usually goes to chancellors, vice chancellor or deans. But, being surprised that he was nominated by students for this honor was like winning the Nobel Prize at this stage of his career.
Jim will move into phased retirement in Fall 2025. He is a person with autism and most always would rather be with a dog. He hopes to focus on writing, speaking, and volunteering (with his therapy dog, Brea) on issues related to navigating academe as a neurodiverse person in this next chapter of his career.
He has been married to his wife Adele for 27 years who is retired from her role implementing and supporting electronic medical record systems and has a stepson (Cecil) who is a musician. Jim’s interests include playing guitar and piano, bonding with the two dogs that adopted him and Adele, and kayaking on Lake Jeanette while thanking the herons and other birds for sharing their home. He is originally from Pittsburgh and an avid Steeler and Penguin fan. In fact, his major claim to fame was being present in the stands at the game where Franco Harris made the "immaculate reception."