Nishanta Rajakaruna
nrajakaruna@gmail.com | faculty website

B.A. Human Ecology, College of the Atlantic, 1994
M.Sc. Botany, Plant Ecology, The University of British Columbia, 1998
Ph.D. Botany, Evolutionary Ecology, The University of British Columbia, 2002

Course Areas: field botany, plant taxonomy, plant evolutionary processes, and
ethnobotany
Nishanta "Nishi" Rajakaruna received his B.A. in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic (1994). He returned to COA as a faculty member in botany from 2004-2008. In 2008, he joined the Faculty at the Department of Biological Sciences at San José State University in California so as to pursue his research on California's plants. Nishi will re-join COA September 2010. Nishi's primary research interest is in understanding the role extreme edaphic (soil) conditions play in generating and maintaining plant diversity. He teaches Edible Botany, Ethnobotany, Trees and Shrubs of Mount Desert Island, Plant Taxonomy, Plant Evolutionary Processes, among other botany-related courses.

Nishi, originally from Sri Lanka, fell in love with plants fairly early in his life during a visit to Sri Lanka's Sinharaja Rainforest. He pursued his passion for plants under the supervision of the late Dr. Craig Greene, beloved botanist of COA. During his studies at COA he was able to return to the Sinharaja Rainforest and work for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute as a field coordinator in establishing the first long-term forest dynamics plot in the rainforest. Upon graduation he worked as a research assistant for the late Dr. Fakhri Bazzaz at the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University. In 1995 he joined the Department of Botany, The University of British Columbia and received a M.Sc (1998) and a Ph.D. (2002) for his work on the evolutionary ecology of the Californian endemic annual plant Lasthenia californica (common goldfields of the sunflower family). Nishi joined the laboratory of Dr. David Ackerly, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University (currently, at UC Berkeley) as a NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canada) postdoctoral fellow in 2003. His research focused on understanding community assembly patterns on serpentine chaparral in California. Nishi's recent research (2008-2010) on California's serpentine plants is funded by the National Science Foundation and the US Forest Service; he will continue to carry out research in California while holding an Adjunct Associate Professor position at San José State University (Fall 2010-onwards).

During his time as faculty member in botany at COA (2004-2008), Nishi supervised senior projects and independent studies on bryophytes, lichens, and higher plants growing on extreme substrates in Maine, leading to nine student-authored, peer-reviewed publications. Nishi is the co-editor of two key treatments on plant life on serpentine soils: Serpentine: Evolution and Ecology in a Model System (2011, UC Press) and Soil and Biota of Serpentine: A World View (2009, Humboldt Field Research Institute/Allen Press). Nishi is looking forward to resuming his COA teaching and research interests as well as his extra-curricular activities of badminton and cricket starting September 2010.