Sabrina E. Russo is a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and Center for Plant Science Innovation at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, USA. She received a B.A. in Biology from Harvard University, USA, and completed her PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. Her PhD research examined the link between the behaviors and traits of seed dispersal agents and the consequences for seed rain and seedling survival for a neotropical nutmeg tree in the Amazon. As a field ecologist, her PhD research provided her first foray into modeling, in which she developed a simulation model of how properties of primate seed dispersers and trees shape the seed shadow. Dr. Russo completed two postdoctoral fellowships: one with Dr. Stuart J. Davies at the Harvard University Herbaria, USA, and one with Dr. David A. Coomes at Cambridge University, UK. A unifying theme of Dr. Russo’s research is that understanding tree species’ life histories in terms of underlying functional variation, resource-allocation trade-offs, and plant-biotic interactions provides insight into the distribution of plant species, which ultimately determines ecological patterns of diversity. Dr. Russo teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in plant biology, plants in human medicine, ecology, and community ecology.
