Dr. Alex McAlvay

Dr. McAlvay is an ethnobotanist in the Institute of Economic Botany at the New York Botanical Garden. He received a B.S. in Biological Anthropology from Western Washington University and a Ph.D. in Botany from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and carried out a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University. In addition to his research activities at New York Botanical Garden, he teaches ethnobotany at Columbia University.

Research summary

Dr. McAlvay’s research is focused on understanding the relationships between humans and their environments, the evolutionary and ecological impacts of humans on plants, and the traditional stewardship of plants by various cultures. His work ranges from genomic research to understand how humans have shaped plants through domestication, to ethnobotanical projects to support the continuity and revitalization of cultural traditions related to plants. He has projects in Mexico, the U.S., Canada, Ethiopia, and Georgia.

Keywords

Ethnobotany, Agroecology, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Climate Change, Crop origins and diversity