Rate My Professor Jacob Suissa

Jacob Suissa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he also serves as Curator of the Pteridophyte Collection in the UT Herbarium. He earned his B.S. in Plant Biology from the University of Vermont in 2016 and his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University in 2022, advised by William E. Friedman. Prior to his faculty appointment, Suissa worked as a lab technician in the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Vermont from 2016 to 2016 and as a research intern in the Department of Botany at the Smithsonian Institution in 2017. He maintains a Visiting Scholar position at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. Suissa directs the BotanEE Lab, focusing on the evolution of plant form in ferns, one of the oldest and most diverse vascular plant lineages.

Suissa's research investigates how developmental processes, morphological innovations, and physiological traits have shaped fern evolution over 400 million years, including vascular architecture, drought-induced embolism vulnerability, reproductive dimorphism, and ecological interactions such as convergent evolution of nectar-producing nectaries for ant mutualisms. His studies employ advanced techniques like microCT imaging to analyze vascular bundles in over 300 fern species, revealing a 1:1 correlation between leaf number and vascular bundle count, with arrangements mirroring leaf phyllotaxy, thus attributing evolutionary patterns to developmental constraints rather than direct environmental adaptation. Key publications encompass 'Mountains, Climate, and Niche Heterogeneity Explain Global Patterns of Fern Diversity' (Journal of Biogeography, 2021), 'From cells to stems: the effects of primary vascular construction on drought-induced embolism in fern rhizomes' (New Phytologist, 2021), 'Rapid diversification of vascular architecture underlies the Carboniferous fern radiation' (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2022), 'Fern vascular architecture reveals how developmental constraint can generate novel morphology' (Current Biology, 2025), and 'Convergent evolution of fern nectaries facilitated independent recruitment of ant-bodyguards from flowering plants' (Nature Communications, 2024). In 2025, he received the Grady L. Webster and Barbara D. Webster Structural Botany Publication Award from the Botanical Society of America. Suissa advances science communication and education as co-founder of the nonprofit Let's Botanize and through student-led field research, including projects in Costa Rica on species like Mickelia nicotianifolia.