Stern/Introductory Plant Biology

Kingsley Stern

Kingsley R. Stern received his undergraduate education at Wheaton College, where he majored in botany. In graduate school, he continued his studies in botany, while minoring in zoology and horticulture. He received his master’s degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis. He took additional graduate courses at the University of Illinois in Urbana, and at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University in Pacific Grove, California.

While pursuing his studies, Dr. Stern held part-time positions as an instructor in biology at Hamline University, and an instructor in botany at the University of Minnesota, where he received a Conway McMillan Research Fellowship. After accepting a position as Assistant Professor of Botany at California State University in Chico, he was promoted to Associate, and then Full Professor. In 1987, while on leave, he was a Visiting Professor of Botany at the Manoa campus of the University of Hawaii.

During his tenure at California State University, Dr. Stern taught eight different courses, several of which he introduced to the curriculum, and has been on the committees of over 50 graduate students. To date, an estimated 15,000 students have enrolled in his classes. He has received several grants from the National Science Foundation in support of biosystematic investigations in Fumariaceae (Fumitory family). These investigations, which included studies at the Swedish National Pollen Laboratory in Stockholm, eventually led to the publication of about 20 research papers in professional journals.

Dr. Stern’s academic awards include being named Outstanding Professor at California State University in 1993, and receiving the school’s Distinguished Service award in 1999 for establishing and developing the University Herbarium, which now contains more than 70,000 specimans.

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