Jennifer Ramstetter— Biology
Jenny graduated from Marlboro with a B.S. in biology and went on to earn an M.A. in botany at the University of Montana. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts with a study of the dynamics of pollination and fertilization in two wild plant species. After a year of postdoctoral research on rare plants in France, she returned to Marlboro to teach.
Teaching Philosophy
In all of her courses, from general biology (which she co-teaches with biologist Bob Engel) to plant physiology or evolution, Jenny seeks to impart not merely detail, but an understanding of processes and relationships. "I also try to help students understand what constitutes a good question in biology. Some of the questions that seem most fascinating are broad and unmanageable," she says. "The biologist’s job is to ask smaller questions, and use the answers to address larger questions."
Research Interests
As a biologist, Jenny’s abiding concern is for protecting biodiversity at multiple levels – populations, species, communities, and ecosystems. Understanding the biology of these systems is crucial to that effort, Jenny maintains. But biology is only one of many pieces to the conservation ‘puzzle.’ "One of the most exciting things about being at Marlboro is that it offers so many opportunities to integrate biology with policy issues and cultural considerations," says Jenny, who recently team-taught a course in conservation biology with Marlboro economist Jim Tober.
B.S., Marlboro College, 1981; M.A., University of Montana, 1983; Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1988; Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Montpellier, France, 1988 - 1989, Marlboro College, 1989 -