Daniel Lee Nickrent | |
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 | |
| Born | 20 February 1956 |
| Citizenship | United States of America |
| Alma mater | Southern Illinois University Old Dominion University (M.S.) Miami University (PhD) |
| Known for |
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| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Old Dominion University University of Illinois Illinois Natural History Survey Southern Illinois University |
| Thesis | A systematic and evolutionary study of selected taxa in the genus Arceuthobium (Viscaceae) (1984) |
| Doctoral advisor | W. Hardy Eshbaugh Sheldon Guttman |
| Doctoral students | Romina Vidal-Russell |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Nickrent |
| Website | nickrentlab |
Daniel Lee Nickrent is an American botanist, working in plant evolutionary biology, including the subdisciplines of genomics, phylogenetics, systematics, population genetics, and taxonomy. A major focus has been parasitic flowering plants, particularly of the sandalwood order (Santalales). His interest in photographic documentation and photographic databases has led to several photographic databases including Parasitic Plant Connection,[1] Phytoimages,[2] Plant Checklist for the Rocky Mountain National Park,[3] and Plant Checklist for the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge.[4][5]
Nickrent has over 9400 citations (as of 15 October 2019) according to Google Scholar.[6] He is Research Faculty and Professor Emeritus of Plant Molecular Systematics and Evolution at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) (As of July 2019[update]).
The standard author abbreviation Nickrent is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[7]
After completing one year towards his undergraduate degree at Illinois State University, Nickrent's interest in plants began during his participation in an NSF-sponsored research project where he worked on the flora of the Great Dismal Swamp under the direction of Lytton Musselman at Old Dominion University. This work resulted in his first publication.[8] In 1977 he received a bachelor's degree in Botany from Southern Illinois University. He earned a master's degree from Old Dominion University with work on the parasite witchweed Striga, and earned a PhD from Miami University in 1984 ("A systematic and evolutionary study of selected taxa in the genus Arceuthobium (Viscaceae)").[9][10]
From 1984 to 1990, Nickrent was assistant professor and Director of the University of Illinois Herbarium (ILL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.[10][11]
From 1990 to 1994, Nickrent was assistant professor in the faculty of Plant Biology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale.[10][11] During this period, his laboratory methodology changed from working with rRNA to DNA using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which made sequencing genes easier. This resulted in the discovery of increased rates of gene evolution in parasitic plants[12] and the publication of one of the earliest species-level molecular phylogenies using nuclear ITS[13] on the dwarf mistletoes, Arceuthobium.
From 1994 to 2003, as an associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale,[11][10] Nickrent's research program expanded to examine many groups of parasitic plants, including those that lack photosynthesis (holoparasites). In 2004, he again collaborated with Musselman to produce an article on parasitic plants hosted by the American Phytopathological Society.[14]
From 2003 to 2014, Nickrent was a full professor at the university, becoming an emeritus professor (SIUC) from 2014 onwards.[11][10] His work on Rafflesia in the Philippines was supported by a grant from the National Geographic Society in 2008,[15] the start of a continuing collaboration with Julie Barcelona and Pieter Pelser. His work in the Philippines, funded by NSF-DEB in 2018, is a collaborative project with Botanical Research Institute of Texas and other national and international institutions.[16] Other grants have also been awarded to Nickrent as principal investigator to allow continuing work on other aspects of Santalales and parasitic plants.[17][18][19][20]
The Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (Santalales)[21] notes that in 2008, Der & Nickrent found Santalaceae to be polyphyletic with some genera being outside the family, but eight well supported clades within.[22] While in 2019, Nickrent and others further improved resolution within the family, using nuclear and chloroplast genes, while trying to understand its complex morphology.[23]
Since 1986, Nickrent has served as an associate professional scientist with the Illinois Natural History Survey.[24]
Nickrent has authored some 47 taxa,[27] including:
