Welcome Dr. Adriana Hernandez, new Associate Director for Research at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve
Caption: Adriana dissects flowers of Castilleja (paintbrushes) to image on a scanner. Credit: Gayle Laid at the California Academy of Sciences.
Welcome Dr. Adriana Hernandez!
We are excited to welcome Dr. Adriana Hernandez as she steps into her new role as the Associate Director for Research at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve starting next year on January 4, 2024. Adriana will take over the directorship of the preserve’s research program from Dr. Nona Chiariello when she retires in January after more than 35 years here at Jasper Ridge. Adriana brings more than 12 years of scientific and research experience in institutions similar to Jasper Ridge in the fields of plant biology, evolution and conservation. Her experience in these scientific institutions and her expertise in California flora will allow her to continue the amazing legacy that Nona has built and also give Stanford researchers and our broader community new opportunities.
Growing up in Oxnard, California, Adriana has lived most of her life a mile or less from the beach in southern California. This sparked an interest and love for the outdoors where she would frequently walk for miles in the sand, skateboard, ride her bike and fly kites on the beach. She says “it might be a bit too cliché coming from a Californian, but it’s the truth!”. During her college years she noticed a transformation when her regular hikes turned into hunts for botanical treasures, and in part that’s what led to her love of botany and field work. This ultimately turned into a scientific and research journey that inspired her to gain expertise in the fields of biogeography, population biology and evolutionary biology to continue uncovering the many layers of one of biology’s biggest questions: why are organisms where they are?
A butterfly mariposa lily (Calochortus venustus) from the Sierra Nevada, representing a highly polymorphic species that Adriana focused on for her doctoral research. Credit: Adriana Hernandez.
Adriana earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a PhD at Cornell University in Plant Biology. She has navigated a research career from ethnobotanical research as an undergraduate at UC Santa Barbara to applied conservation genetics and ecology at the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden. During her Ph.D in Dr. Chelsea Specht’s lab, Adriana built her own independent research program to work on the biogeography, floral trait evolution, and molecular adaptive evolution of Calochortus (mariposa lilies) (Hernandez et al. 2022, Hernandez et al. 2023). After her Ph.D., she continued her plant biology career as a postdoctoral researcher at the California Academy of Sciences. She worked with Dr. Sarah Jacobs where she developed a systematic approach to disentangle species relationships in Castilleja (paintbrushes). All of this work and knowledge led Adriana to join the Jasper Ridge team: “I am excited to explore the Preserve's trails and see how the land, flora, and fauna change throughout the seasons and over the years. I am most excited to explore serpentine habitats because they are uninhabitable for most plant species, yet over 10% of California endemic plants are restricted to serpentine soils”.
Adriana demonstrates how to collect and press herbarium specimens as part of online education materials. Credit: Dr. Liz Mahood at Cornell University.
Adriana is excited to join Jasper Ridge at an incredibly opportune time. She recognizes the significance of the 50th anniversary of the preserve and is particularly excited about the completion of the digitization of the Oakmead’s Herbarium vouchers, “This is perhaps the best time for a botanist to explore the collections! I am ecstatic to delve into the collections”, Adriana mentioned. She is looking forward to combining her work experiences and the knowledge from her research, with the 1200 acres of diverse ecosystems and the Oakmead Herbarium, to brainstorm and guide future research. She highlights that there is a great opportunity for future research projects to be applied to conservation and stewardship practices such as predicting and mediating the effects of climate change on wild populations and prioritizing species and habitats for preservation.
Fluent in Spanish as well as English, a first-generation Mexican immigrant to California, and as a first-generation college student, Adriana has always been motivated to work in public science education and outreach programs, mentor future generations of scholars from diverse backgrounds, and disseminate her work to diverse audiences. With more than 12 years of experience in these efforts, Adriana has built a scientific and culturally informed mentoring philosophy that invites early career scientists and students to navigate academia, discover new mentoring networks, while maintaining their own identities as scientists. She has worked and facilitated student programs with many scientific organizations and their mentoring programs such as AISES, Botanical Society of America, the California Academy of Sciences Indigenous Solidarity Committee, California Botanical Society, ROOT & SHOOT, and SACNAS. Her mentoring and teaching also extends out in the field during botanical field courses and expeditions. She has been the lead in six field expeditions, four in California and two internationally in Argentina and in Chile.
Adriana navigates through coastal scrub to collect plants for molecular and morphological work. Credit: Gayle Laid at the California Academy of Sciences.
Adriana’s vision of her time at Jasper Ridge is founded in research, education and stewardship. She wrote that her scientific capacity and commitment to collections-based research, integrative research across methodologies and disciplines, and meaningful collaborations with Indigenous partners, have given her the experience to co-create research programs that center shared values and advance our understanding and protection of biodiversity and stewardship. Her expertise makes her well-suited to navigate the complex challenges and opportunities that Jasper Ridge is facing from local to global scales, and in short- and long-term scales. As the torch passes from Nona to Adriana, the preserve enters a new chapter, one filled with anticipation and excitement for the scientific discoveries and conservation breakthroughs that lie ahead under her guidance. We are confident that Adriana will be a great asset to help direct and coordinate research at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, further elevating its value as a living classroom and laboratory for cutting-edge studies.
Starting the new year, you will be able to find Adriana at Jasper Ridge. Please stop by and say hi and join us in welcoming Adriana to the Jasper Ridge community!
