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Greg Murray grew up in southern California, where the seashores, deserts and mountains that one can visit in a single day were the perfect place for a budding young field biologist. As an undergraduate he focused on marine ecology, but switched to seabirds and rodents when he got the chance to study their breeding ecology and interactions on an island off the coast of southern California for several months at a time. Later, his research focus shifted to the study of interactions between tropical rainforest plants, the birds that pollinate their flowers, and those that disperse their seeds.

Along the way he and Kathy Winnett found one another, and after they received their master亚洲色吧檚 degrees in biology they married and pursued doctoral studies at the University of Florida. In 1986 they both joined the biology faculty of Hope College. They retired from the teaching faculty in 2021 and now live in Prescott, Arizona, but Murray maintains several active research projects and still has senior researcher status at the college.

Dr. Murray taught courses ranging from introductory biology to upper-level explorations of topics including population and community ecology, conservation biology, mathematical biology, and marine biology and biophysics. He was especially active in curriculum development in the Department of Biology, and in integrating field experience into the department亚洲色吧檚 courses.

Throughout his career at Hope, Dr. Murray continued his studies of plant-animal interactions in the mountains of Costa Rica. Having also studied the ecology of sea urchins, lizards, rodents, temperate songbirds, pond ecosystems, invasive plants and insects, and the defensive chemicals and microbial communities associated with dormant seeds in forest soils, he is a firm believer in the value of a broad background, especially at the undergraduate level.

Areas of Expertise

Dr. Murray has broad interests in ecology and evolutionary biology, especially in plant/animal interactions, community ecology and vertebrate feeding ecology. His primary research focuses on the ways in which plants, fruit-eating birds, seed predators and pathogens, and physical disturbance regimes interact to determine community structure in tropical forests.

Since 1980 he has conducted detailed studies of seed dispersal, forest dynamics and plant demography in a cloud forest at Monteverde, Costa Rica, concentrating on a group of 亚洲色吧減ioneer plants亚洲色吧� 亚洲色吧� species that start the regeneration process after human or natural disturbance.

His ongoing research includes work with Hope mathematician Dr. Brian Yurk that incorporates plant demography and forest disturbance rate data into mathematical models to understand how tropical forests 亚洲色吧渨ork亚洲色吧� and how they shape the evolution of pioneer plant characteristics.

He also continues a long-term collaborative effort with Hope College chemists, most recently Dr. Elizabeth Sanford, to identify the chemicals that can protect pioneer species亚洲色吧� seeds in the soil for decades or even hundreds of years. With Dr. Winnett-Murray and others, he also is tracking ecological shifts in a West Michigan hemlock forest that is undergoing a potentially devastating insect infestation.

Education

• Ph.D., zoology, University of Florida, 1986
• M.S., biology, California State University, 1980
• B.A., biology, California State University, 1977

Selected Honors and Grants

• Appointed to T. Elliot Weier Professor of Plant Science endowed professorship, 2017
• 亚洲色吧淢odeling forest dynamics and pioneer plant populations in the Monteverde Cloud Forest,亚洲色吧� Hope College Jacob E. Nienhuis Collaborative Faculty Summer Research Grant (co-PI with Dr. Brian Yurk, Dept. of Mathematics), 2016
• 亚洲色吧淎n Interdisciplinary Study of Bocconia and Macleaya (Poppy Relatives): Systematic Relationships, Invasive History, and Chemical Profiles,亚洲色吧� Hope College-Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Development Grant for Interdisciplinary Research (co-PI with Drs. Jianhua Li [Department of Biology] and Kenneth Brown [Department of Chemistry]), 2015
• 亚洲色吧淢icrobial Interactions in Dormant Seeds: Training a Collaborative Team to Integrate the Microbiome with Plant Population Ecology,亚洲色吧� Great Lakes Colleges Association, New Directions Program (co-PI with Drs. Aaron Best, Thomas Bultman, Jianhua Li and Kathy Winnett-Murray, Department of Biology), 2012
• 亚洲色吧淎cquisition of Instrumentation to Determine Provenance of Environmental Samples,亚洲色吧� National Science Foundation (co-PI with Dr. Graham Peaslee, Departments of Chemistry and Geology and Environmental Science, and Dr. Stephen Remillard, Department of Physics), 2010
• 亚洲色吧淎 strategic development plan for the Hope College field station,亚洲色吧� National Science Foundation (co-PI with T.L. Bultman, E.C. Hansen, D. Swarthout and K. Winnett-Murray), 2005
• 亚洲色吧淎ntifungal compounds in seeds of pioneer plants: effects on community-level processes in a Costa Rican cloud forest,亚洲色吧� Hope College-Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Development Grant for Interdisciplinary Research (co-PI with Dr. William Mungall, Department of Chemistry), 2005
• 亚洲色吧淢arine Biology and Biophysics,亚洲色吧� Hope College-Howard Hughes Faculty Development Grant for Interdisciplinary Course Development (co-PI with P. Gonthier, Department of Physics), 2005
• 亚洲色吧淚ntegrating mathematics and biology: a case studies approach to linear algebra,亚洲色吧� National Science Foundation (co-PI with Dr. Janet Andersen, Department of Mathematics), 2000
• 亚洲色吧淚nstrumentation to integrate pattern and process in organismal biology and ecology,亚洲色吧� National Science Foundation (co-PI with Dr. Kathy Winnett-Murray), 1998
• 亚洲色吧淒ynamics of tropical forest seed banks: seed predators as determinants of community structure and plant-frugivore coevolution,亚洲色吧� National Science Foundation, 1993
• 亚洲色吧淎 Microcomputer Classroom for the Biological and Chemical Sciences,亚洲色吧� National Science Foundation, 1990

Selected Published Work

• 亚洲色吧淓ffects of Urbanization on the Population Structure of Freshwater Turtles across the United States,亚洲色吧� with D.R. Bowne et al., Conservation Biology, 2018
• 亚洲色吧淒iversity of Seeds Captured by Interception Exceeds Diversity of Seeds Deposited in Traps,亚洲色吧� with J.L. Stone et al., Biotropica, 2017
• 亚洲色吧淒ifferential diversifications of South American and eastern Asian Disjunct genera Bocconia and Macleaya (Papaveraceae),亚洲色吧� with J. Li et al., Journal of Systematics and Evolution, 2017
• 亚洲色吧淐hemical Defense and the Persistence of Pioneer Plant Seeds in the Soil of a Tropical Cloud Forest,亚洲色吧� with J.W. Veldman et al., Biotropica, 2007
• 亚洲色吧淧hotosynthetic Strategies and their Consequences for Plant Community Structure,亚洲色吧� with K. Winnett-Murray and L. Hertel, Tested studies for laboratory teaching, vol. 26; Proceedings of the 26th Workshop/Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE), 2005
• 亚洲色吧淚sland biogeography, species diversity, and the design of nature preserves,亚洲色吧� with K. Winnett-Murray and L. Hertel, Tested studies for laboratory teaching, vol. 23; Proceedings of the 23rd Workshop/Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE), 2002
• 亚洲色吧淧lant-animal interactions,亚洲色吧� with S. Kinsman and J. Bronstein, in N.M. Nadkarni and N.T. Wheelwright (eds.), Monteverde: Ecology and Conservation of a Tropical Cloud Forest, 2000
• 亚洲色吧淪easonal fruit preferences and digestive correlates in American Robins,亚洲色吧� with C.A. Lepczyk et al., The Auk, 2000
• 亚洲色吧淧lant succession, landscape management, and the ecology of frugivorous birds in abandoned Amazonian pastures,亚洲色吧� with J.M. Cardoso da Silva and C. Uhl, Conservation Biology 1996
• 亚洲色吧淔ruit laxatives and seed passage rates in frugivores: consequences for plant reproductive success,亚洲色吧� with S. Russell et al., Ecology, 1994
• 亚洲色吧淭he influence of seed packaging and fruit color on feeding preferences of American Robins,亚洲色吧� with K. Winnett-Murray et al., Vegetatio, 1993
• 亚洲色吧淪wainson亚洲色吧檚 Thrush,亚洲色吧� in R. Brewer et al (eds.), The atlas of breeding birds of Michigan, 1991
• 亚洲色吧淎vian seed dispersal of three neotropical gap-dependent plants,亚洲色吧� Ecological Monographs, 1988
• 亚洲色吧淪election for optimal fruit crop size in bird-dispersed plants,亚洲色吧� American Naturalist, 1987
• 亚洲色吧淭ropical fruit亚洲色吧慹ating birds and their food plants: a survey of a Costa Rican lower montane forest,亚洲色吧� with N.T. Wheelwright et al., Biotropica, 1984
•  亚洲色吧淏reeding Biology of the Xantus亚洲色吧� Murrelet,亚洲色吧� with K.A. Winnett亚洲色吧慚urray et al., Condor, 1983

View all of Greg Murray亚洲色吧檚 published work at .

Outside the College

Dr. Murray enjoys fishing, kayaking and hiking, though he spends far less time on such pursuits than he ought to. A former member of the college亚洲色吧檚 亚洲色吧淕reen Team,亚洲色吧� he亚洲色吧檚 an enthusiastic supporter of bringing science to bear on environmental and economic problems, and was active in local, regional and national conservation organizations including the West Michigan Environmental Action Council and the Holland Climate Collaborative in Holland, Michigan. In retirement, he has continued that emphasis on sustainability, climate resiliency and wildlife conservation in Arizona. He亚洲色吧檚 also pathologically devoted to his Australian Shepherds, Mookie and Charlie.