This session will focus on the variety of different systems of biomechanics in plants. These systems are important for arborists to understand as practitioners.

About Dr. Niklas

Karl J. Niklas received a B.S. (mathematics) from the City College of the City of New York and a M.S. (chemistry) and Ph.D. (plant biology) from the University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois. Niklas joined Cornell in 1978, where he is the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant Biology emeritus, and a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential fellow. He is the author of over 400 research articles and five books (Plant Biomechanics 1992, Plant Allometry 1994, The Evolutionary Biology of Plants 1997, Plant Physics (co-authored with Hanns–Christof Spatz) 2012, and Plant Evolution 2016). Niklas is the recipient of numerous awards including a John S. Guggenheim Fellowship, the George Gaylord Simpson Prize (Yale University), the New York State University Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung Preis for Senior USA Scientists, the Jeanette Siron Pelton Award for studies in plant morphogenesis, the Botanical Society of America’s 1996 Lifetime Merit Award and 2006 Centennial Medal, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was also elected as a fellow in the Institute of Advanced Study at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.