Dr Zoe Goodwin
I am the Postgraduate Co-ordinator for the RBGE's MSc in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants. I am course leader for the 'Evolution of Plants', 'Biodiversity of Angiosperms' and 'Tropical Plant Identification' modules. I specialise in teaching the vegetative identification of tropical plant families and general field identification skills.
I am also a tropical botanist specialising in the Neotropical flora, in particular I am interested in the savanna and dry forests of Central and South America.
After my MSc I spent much of my time collecting and identifying plants in the forests and lowland savannas of Belize, Central America. During my PhD I investigated the history of tropical taxa through herbarium specimens, and how these herbarium specimens have influenced our understanding of tropical diversity.
I continue to work on the flora of Belize and in the Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests of the Marañón valley in Peru, an inter-Andean valley which is famous for its exceptional number of endemic species.