Weston Testo ’12 arrived at Colgate as an undergraduate in 2008, the same year that James “Eddie” Watkins joined Colgate’s faculty in the Department of Biology. In the 10 years since, Testo has grown from one of Watkins’s undergraduate students to one of his trusted colleagues.
Watkins and Testo, who is now a Post Doc in the Sessa lab at the University of Florida, just appeared appeared as coauthors on their seventh academic paper together. The most recent paper, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, is titled “Geometry, Allometry and Biomechanics of Fern Leaf Petioles: Their Significance for the Evolution of Functional and Ecological Diversity Within the Pteridaceae.”
“This paper is part of a National Science Foundation grant with my colleague Jarmila Pittermann at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The goal of the paper was to understand better how plants adapt as they move into new habitats,” said Watkins.
With Colgate’s small class sizes, intimate learning environment, and direct access to faculty members, undergraduates and faculty frequently collaborate on compelling research projects.