Email:  JGILLEN@HOSTOS.CUNY.EDU
 

Office Number: A-507M

Office Tel: 718 518-4140

Courses Teaching:

BIO 120 – Plants and Society
BIO 210 – General Biology I
BIO 220 – General Biology II
BIO 230 – Anatomy & Physiology I
BIO 240 – Anatomy & Physiology II


Biography:

I am a native New Yorker and grew up in the Bronx, not very far from New York Botanical Garden. I received my education through the New York City public school system (including the Bronx High School of Science) and the City University of New York (CUNY): my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Lehman, and my Ph.D. from the CUNY Graduate School.

I have always been interested in the ancient plants that existed before the familiar flowering plants, and how their growth patterns may have been controlled by growth regulators, or “plant hormones”. One plant on which I do research is a tiny fern that floats on the surface of lakes and ponds, sometimes in enormous amounts. This fern has been abundant since the Jurassic period.

I am currently on the Council of Directors, and formerly served as president, of the Torrey Botanical Society, the oldest botanical organization in the New World.

Another long-time interest of mine is the role of nature in New York, and how people react to it. Together with Prof. Amanda Bernal-Carlo of Hostos, I have been doing a project on medicinal plants of New York City. We are also been working on the conservation ecology of an endangered tree species in Brazil’s coastal forest, the “pau- brasil” tree from which the country got its name.

Apart from my involvement with science, I am also very interested in the Irish (Gaelic) language, and am a research fellow of the CUNY Institute for Irish-American Studies.