College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

James Marvin Memorial Seminar Series

Marvin Seminars are held on Wednesdays from 1:00-2:00 p.m. in Jeffords 110. Attendees gather afterward from 2:00-2:30 p.m. in Jeffords 111 to socialize and enjoy refreshments.

Seminars this semester will be held in person with a simultaneous livestream via Microsoft Teams. If you would like to attend a seminar remotely, please email plantbio@uvm.edu to request a link to the MS Teams live stream.

The current seminar schedule is posted below. Marvin Seminar schedules for previous academic years can be found here.

Spring 2026 Marvin Seminar Schedule

DateSpeakerSeminar Title
January 21Prof. Liana Burghardt, Penn StatePicking Partners: Host selectivity and rewards in the legume-rhizobia symbiosis
January 28NO SEMINAR 
February 4NO SEMINAR 
February 11Isaac Buabeng & Julie Raiguel-Meis, Plant Biology PhD students

Assessing Community Invasibility as an Effect of the Functional Differentiation of Invasive Species to the Edge of Trait Space 

An Investigation of Abscisic Acid Localization in the Developing Root Tip

February 18Prof. Dominique Gravel, Université de SherbrookeThe challenge of predicting forest response to climate change from landscape to individual scales
February 25Nicole Phelan, Plant Biology PhD studentPolyploidy, cryptic species, and surprise hybridization in Vermont’s wild sunflowers
March 4Prof. John Salogiannis, Larner College of MedicineTBA
March 11NO SEMINAR SPRING BREAK
March 18Dr. Ari Freedman, UVM Plant BiologyThe role of behavior in human and animal infectious disease dynamic: considerations for modeling and control
March 25Regina Visconti, Plant Biology PhD studentTBA
April 1Dr. Karsten Fatur, UVM Plant BiologyNames in Search of a Species: Ethnobotanical research on proposed identities of plants in mythology
April 8Prof. Guillaume de Lafontaine, Université du Québec à RimouskiTBA
April 15Nico Zapata, Plant Biology PhD studentIntegrating Evolutionary, Biogeographic and Natural History perspectives of tropical fern genus Pityrogramma
April 22Emily DeAlto & Laura Costello, Field Naturalist master's students

Twenty Feet of Peat: A Paleoecological Investigation into the Origins of the UVM Natural Areas Program's New Peatland – Joe's Pond, Morrisville

Crowds, Cameras, and Citations: Exploring Orchid-Insect Relationships Using iNaturalist, Fieldwork, and the Literature

April 29Naya Banerjee & Matthias Sirch, Field Naturalist master's students

Tracks and Taps: Wildlife Habitat and Presence in the Sugarbush at Proctor Maple Research Center

Vermont’s Sugaring Operations and Potential Implications for Wildlife

May 6Ben Applegate & Greta Aiken, Field Naturalist master's students

River Conservation Opportunities in Northeastern Vermont: A Scoping Study of Partnership Wild & Scenic Designation for the Clyde River 

A Landscape Inventory and Assessment of Londonderry, Vermont's Town Lands