John P. Janovec, Ph.D.
Research Botanist
Director, Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program
B.S., Agriculture and Botany, Kansas State University, May 1995
Ph.D., Botany, Texas A&M University, August 2000
John Janovec was born in the Flint Hills of northeastern Kansas, in the town of Mahattan, and he remained there until graduating in 1995 with a B.S. in Botany/Agriculture from Kansas State University. His life until that point was a mixture between experience on the small farm of his grandparents and in this small Kansas university town. During his undergraduate studies at Kansas State University he was influenced early on by the former Dr. Ted Barkley, a legendary botanist of North America, who prepped John for a career as a tropical botanist. During 1995-2000 John earned his Ph.D. at Texas A&M University working under Dr. James Manhart on a monograph of a tropical American genus of the nutmeg family of trees. He worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow during 2000-2003 with Dr. Scott Mori and Dr. Dennis Stevenson in the Institute of Systematic Botany and Dr. Michael Balick in the Institute of Economic Botany at the New York Botanical Garden.
John joined the staff of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas as a research botanist and director of the Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program, which he co-founded with Amanda Neill, BRIT Herbarium Director. He is an Adjunct Professor of the Texas Christian University College of Science and Engineering where he serves as graduate advisor to six M.S. students who are conducting botanical and ecological research through BRIT and in Peru. He is also a visiting professor at two Peruvian universities.
John is interested in the diversity, ecology, evolution, biogeography, and conservation of plants, particularly in the American tropics. Driven by this interest, his research is focused on two scales of tropical plant diversity, from the Myristicaceae (nutmeg) family of trees to the flora of the Andes-Amazon region of southeastern Peru. John's first expedition to tropical America was carried out during January 1996 in Costa Rica. Since that first trip to Costa Rica in 1996, John has conducted nearly 40 expeditions to tropical America, including the countries Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru, where he has been working since 1998 and where he is now stationed for 10 months per year running the BRIT field programs in the Andes-Amazon region. He has published 20 scientific articles during the last five years and his first book (with Peruvian colleague Fernando Cornejo) is in review for publication at Princeton University Press.
E-mail: jjanovec@brit.org
Publications
Newmaster, S.G., A.J. Fazekas, A.J., R.A.D. Steeves, and J.P. Janovec. 2007. Testing
Candidate Plant Barcode Regions with Species of Recent Origin in the Myristicaceae. Molecular Ecology.
J. P. Janovec, Jason D. Wells, Renan Valega, Daniel Lam, Amanda K. Neill, and Collaborators. Native Plant Species from the Peruvian Amazon and their Potential in Ornamental Horticulture: A Case Study in Madre de Dios, Peru.
Cornejo, F & J.P. Janovec. 2007. A Protocol for Long-Term Studies and
Monitoring of Plant Phenology in Tropical Forests and Beyond. Biotropica or Journal of
BRIT.
Chambi, B. R., J. P. Janovec, R. Moran, & M. Sundue. 2007. The Pteridophyte Diversity
of a Lowland Amazonian Rainforest: Los Amigos River Watershed, Madre de Dios, Peru.
Chocce, M, J. P. Janovec y Eric Christenson. 2006. Orquídeas del área de conservación “Río Amigos” y del Centro de Investigación y Capacitación “Río Amigos”, Madre de Dios-Perú.
Chocce, M, J. P. Janovec y Eric Christenson. 2006. Orquídeas de los aguajales de Madre de Dios, Perú.
J. P. Janovec , A. K. Neill, and M. G. Mistry. Comparative Androecium Morphology of the Compsoneura capitellata complex (Myristicaceae) with descriptions of two new species.
Cornejo, F., J. P. Janovec, and M. Tobler. 2006.
Floristic diversity and composition of terra firme and seasonally
inundated palm swamp forests in the Palma Real watershed in Lower Madre
de Dios, Peru. Sida, BRIT Contributions to Botany 22(1): 615-633.
Bletter, N., J. P. Janovec, B. Brosi, and D. C. Daly. 2004. A digital base map for studying the neotropical flora. Taxon 53(2): 469-477.
Chocce, M., J. P. Janovec, and E. Christenson. 2004. A synopsis of Otostylis (Orchidaceae: Maxillarieae subtribe Zygopetalinae) with a new record from Peru. SIDA, BRIT Contributions to Botany 21(2): 841-852.
Janovec, J. P. and R. Garcia. 2004. Myristicaceae in the Encyclopedia of Forest Science. Elsevier Press, London.
Majestyk, P. and J. P. Janovec. 2004. Contributions to the moss flora of the Amazonian lowlands of Madre de Dios, Peru. SIDA, BRIT Contributions to Botany 21(2): 1231-1238. Download PDF of article.
Freeman, C. E., J. S. Harrison, J. P. Janovec, and R. Scogin. 2003. The utility of noncoding chloroplast DNA sequences in reconstructing phylogeny in Keckiella (Scrophulariaceae). Systematic Botany 28(4): 782-790.
Janovec, J. P., L. G. Clark, S. A. Mori. 2003. Is the Neotropical flora ready for the PhyloCode? Botanical Review 69(1): 22-43.
Janovec, J. P. and A. K. Neill. 2003. Exploring the palms and cycads of the Maya Mountains of Belize: Reflections on MBC-sponsored Expeditions to Belize, 1999-2001. The Montgomery News 11(1): 5-6.
Janovec, J. P. and A. K. Neill. 2003. Studies of the Myristicaceae: An overview of the Compsoneura atopa complex, with descriptions of new species from Colombia. Brittonia 54(3): 251-261.
Janovec, J. P. 2002. Compsoneura camilodiazii J. Janovec, an interesting new species from the Rio Cenepa area, Peru. Novon 12(3): 366-369.
Janovec, J. P. and J. S. Harrison. 2002. A Morphological Analysis of the Compsoneura sprucei Complex (Myristicaceae), With a New Combination for the Central American Species Compsoneura mexicana. Systematic Botany 27(4): 672-673.
Neill, A. K. and J. P. Janovec. 2001. Occidente y Oriente: Collecting palms and cycads in Ecuador. The Montgomery News 9(2): 5.
Janovec, J.P. & A.K. Neill. 2000. Exploring the palms and cycads of Belize. The Montgomery News 8(1): 8.
Janovec, J. P. and H. Robinson. 1997. Charadranaetes, a new genus of the Senecioneae (Asteraceae) from Costa Rica. Novon 7: 162-168.
Barkley, T. M. and J. P. Janovec. 1996. Robinsonecio (Asteraceae: Senecioneae): A new genus from Mexico and Guatemala. Sida 17: 77-81.
Janovec, J. P. and T. M. Barkley. 1996. Sinosenecio newcombei (Asteraceae: Senecioneae): A new combination for a North American plant in an Asiatic genus. Novon 6: 265-267.
Tobler, M., E. Honorio, J. P. Janovec, and C. Reynel. 2007. Implications of collection patterns of two neotropical plant families (Moraceae and Myristicaceae) in Peru for botany and conservation planning. Biodiversity and Conservation 16(2): In press.
Read more about Janovec's Digital Publications and Presentations