Robert Paratley

Rob Paratley has been living in Lexington for thirty years. He worked at the University of Kentucky for 28 years as a botanist, curator, and instructor. He recently retired from the University of Kentucky, where he taught a number of plant-related courses and ran the university herbarium. His courses reflected his broad botanical interests, covering tree identification and life processes; the description, classification and evolution of the plant kingdom; an economic botany course covering how humans have used and been influenced by plants through history. He has taught seminars on tropical botany and indigenous impacts on ecosystems. The herbarium, his other major responsibility, is a library of collected, pressed, and labeled plant specimens used for research, study and education. As part of his herbarium work, he has spent much time in Kentucky’s forests and fields studying and collecting specimen plants. Rob continues to enjoy experiencing and studying natural systems, and is still working in the herbarium to maintain the collection.

Email: rparatl@uky.edu

Research Areas: botany; ecology; geography

Collaborative Interests: department seminars, guest lectures, public lectures