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Dr. Robert H. Robichaux, University Distinguished Professor

Positions and Education
University Distinguished Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 2001-present
Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 2004-present
Associate Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 1990-2004
Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 1986-90
Assistant Professor, Botany, University of California, Berkeley, 1980-86
Ph.D., Botany, University of California, Davis, 1980
M.S., Botany, University of California, Davis, 1976
B.S., Mathematics, University of Houston, 1974

Honors and Awards
Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, 2000, 2004
Mortar Board Senior Honorary Faculty Recognition, University of Arizona, 2001
Provost’s General Education Teaching Award, University of Arizona, 1998
Student Alumni Association Apple Polisher Award, University of Arizona, 1998
College of Science Distinguished Teaching Award, University of Arizona, 1993
Panhellenic Association Outstanding Faculty Award, University of Arizona, 1990

Research Interests
Rob Robichaux is a plant biologist. His primary interest is conservation, especially endangered plant reintroduction and ecosystem restoration. He works mainly in the Hawaiian archipelago, where the native biota is confronted by daunting conservation challenges. Competition with alien plants, predation by alien ungulates, and predation of pollinators by alien insects pose severe threats to many of Hawaii’s native plants, and thus to the many native animals that depend on them. His current work emphasizes on-the-ground management action, and involves close collaboration with colleagues at the Volcano Rare Plant Facility, Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Olaa-Kilauea Partnership, and other agencies and institutions on the Island of Hawaii. On the side, Rob also continues to explore the ecological and evolutionary factors underlying adaptive radiation in plants, with a focus on the endemic Hawaiian silversword alliance (Asteraceae) as a model system.
PubMed list of publications for Rob Robichaux
Selected Publications
  1. Purugganan MD, Robichaux RH (2004) Adaptive radiation and regulatory gene evolution in the Hawaiian silversword alliance (Asteraceae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden (in press)

  2. Lawton-Rauh A, Robichaux RH, Purugganan MD (2003) Patterns of nucleotide variation in homoeologous regulatory genes in the allotetraploid Hawaiian silversword alliance (Asteraceae). Molecular Ecology 12: 1301-1314

  3. Moriyasu P, Robichaux R (2003) Propagation protocol for the endangered Mauna Loa silversword, Argyroxiphium kauense (Asteraceae). Native Plants Journal 4: 39-41

  4. Purugganan MD, Remington DL, Robichaux RH (2003) Molecular evolution of regulatory genes in the silversword alliance. In: Carlquist S, Baldwin BG, Carr GD (eds) Tarweeds and silverswords: evolution of the Madiinae, pp 171-182. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis

  5. Friar EA, Robichaux RH (2003) Conservation genetics of the silversword alliance. In: Carlquist S, Baldwin BG, Carr GD (eds) Tarweeds and silverswords: evolution of the Madiinae, pp 183-192. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis

  6. Barrier M, Robichaux RH, Purugganan MD (2001) Accelerated regulatory gene evolution in an adaptive radiation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98: 10208-10213

  7. Friar EA, Boose DL, LaDoux T, Roalson EH, Robichaux RH (2001) Population structure in the endangered Mauna Loa silversword, Argyroxiphium kauense (Asteraceae), and its bearing on reintroduction. Molecular Ecology 10: 1657-1663

  8. Robichaux R, Bergfeld S, Bruegmann M, Canfield J, Moriyasu P, Rubenstein T, Tunison T, Warshauer F (2000) Reintroducing Hawaii’s silverswords. Endangered Species Bulletin 25(3): 22-23

  9. Friar EA, LaDoux T, Roalson EH, Robichaux RH (2000) Microsatellite analysis of a population crash and bottleneck in the Mauna Kea silversword, Argyroxiphium sandwicense ssp. sandwicense (Asteraceae), and its implications for reintroduction. Molecular Ecology 9: 2027-2034

  10. Barrier M, Baldwin BG, Robichaux RH, Purugganan MD (1999) Interspecific hybrid ancestry of a plant adaptive radiation: allopolyploidy of the Hawaiian silversword alliance (Asteraceae) inferred from floral homeotic gene duplications. Molecular Biology and Evolution 16: 1105-1113

  11. Robichaux RH, Friar EA, Mount DW (1997) Molecular genetic consequences of a population bottleneck associated with reintroduction of the Mauna Kea silversword (Argyroxiphium sandwicense ssp. sandwicense [Asteraceae]). Conservation Biology 11: 1140-1146

  12. Friar EA, Robichaux RH, Mount DW (1996) Molecular genetic variation following a population crash in the endangered Mauna Kea silversword, Argyroxiphium sandwicense ssp. sandwicense (Asteraceae). Molecular Ecology 5: 687-691

  13. Baldwin BG, Robichaux RH (1995) Historical biogeography and ecology of the Hawaiian silversword alliance (Asteraceae): new molecular phylogenetic perspectives. In: Wagner WL, Funk V (eds) Hawaiian Biogeography: Evolution on a Hot Spot Archipelago, pp 259-287. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington
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