Dr. Pamela Soltis

Distinguished Professor and Curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History

University of Florida

Dr. Pamela Soltis is a distinguished professor and curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida as well as founding director of the UF Biodiversity Institute. She studies the broad field of biodiversity with an emphasis on plant diversity. An internationally recognized botanist, she is widely known for her recognition of the importance of polyploidy evolution — having more than two sets of chromosomes — in flowering and seed plants. Soltis is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has served as an associate editor for seven scientific journals and as a panelist for the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the European Research Council. Soltis has earned numerous teaching recognitions, being named the UF Teacher-Scholar of the Year and a U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Distinguished Professor. Soltis was a nominee for the National Medal of Science and won the Southeastern Universities Research Association’s 2018 Distinguished Scientist Award. Alongside her husband, Dr. Douglas Soltis, who is also a distinguished professor at the University of Florida, the pair has received some of the highest research awards, including the Dahlgren Prize in Botany, the Asa Gray Award, the Botanical Society of America’s Award of Merit, and the Darwin-Wallace Medal.