George Ferguson

Joined ARIZ as Collections Manager in 2013, after working previously as Laboratory Coordinator in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology for the introductory biology and genetics lab classes. His interest in botany began as an undergraduate at Duke University, with graduate programs at UTEP and Texas A&M, studying lizard phylogenetics. His field work did not ignore the plants, and he began cataloging botanical specimens. He taught biology classes at El Paso Community College and worked summers as ranger-naturalist in the national parks.  Interest in the floras and faunas of the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Desert regions, and Sierra Madres has led him on a number of expeditions.  He authored the Pinaceae in Gentry’s Rio Mayo Plants (UA Press 1998), and coauthored the Conifers chapter in The Trees of Sonora, Mexico (Oxford U. Press 2001). He continues field work on conifers, and has participated in biodiversity explorations of the sky islands.  He coauthored “Biogeography and Diversity of Pines in the Madrean Archipelago” and “Preliminary Flora of the Sierra Bacadéhuachi, Sonora, Mexico” both in USDA Rocky Mountain Research Station Proceedings (2013), and “Preliminary Flora of Sierra Los Buenos Aires, Sonora, Mexico” in The Plant Press (Arizona Native Plant Society 2018). He authored final reports to the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2017) on Graptopetalum bartramii Habitat Assessment and Inventory prior to its listing as a Threatened Species in 2021.