The Department of Biology and College or Arts and Sciences (NMSU) are pleased to announce the recent hire of Dr. Patrick Alexander into a half-time postdoctoral position as curator of the Department’s Herbarium (NMC). This two year position and University support for the herbarium is, in part, the result of many years of donations to the herbarium endowment and current use accounts. In particular, donations from numerous individuals and organizations made a big difference in the University’s decision to open such a position. We would like to thank these individuals and organizations (particularly the statewide NPSNM as well as the Otero and Las Cruces Chapters) for their support and hope that you will all be pleased to see the outcome of this generosity.
This development means that we can now offer public open hours for herbarium access to facilitate plant identification, botanical research related activities, literature use, and outreach activities to the region. The herbarium will now be open to the public from 8:30am to 5pm on Mondays and Tuesdays. However, as there may be days when Patrick is out of the museum or when school groups are occupying much of the collection, it is still best to contact Patrick or myself if you plan on traveling to Las Cruces to use the herbarium. More information about the herbarium, use of the collection, and visitation can be found on http://biology-web.nmsu.edu/~
Many thanks,
Donovan Bailey
Dept of Biology Herbarium, NMSU