Past Features
Featuring: Dr. Ryan Stewart
Ph.D. Horticulture - Summer, 2005
Assistant Professor of Horticultural Ecophysiology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The path I took to where I am now wasn't very linear, but it all began when I worked at a Boy Scout camp near Yellowstone and Teton National Parks when I was in high school. It bothered me that I couldn't identify the vegetation along the trails I would hike on nearly every day. Interestingly enough, at the time and up to my freshman year at Utah State University, my career goal was to become a veterinarian, but after spending two years overseas, I realized that while I was still interested in animals, it wasn't what I was supposed to do with my life.
After returning to school, I struggled to figure out what I wanted to do in terms of changing my major. It was recommended to me to talk with the Vice President of Extension at USU. He provided me with the opportunity to work as an intern over two summers in two County Extension Offices in central Utah. I found that I enjoyed learning about plants as I did my best to answer questions about problems that people were having with plants in their gardens and yards. As much as I enjoyed it, though, the prospect of doing research on horticultural plants was even more appealing. Near the end of my second internship, I applied for graduate school at USU with the eventual goal of becoming a professor of horticulture.
In the first year of my masters program, I told my adviser that I wanted to go on to pursue a Ph.D. Among the people he suggested to work with was Dr. Bill Graves. He told me that Dr. Graves had a lot of interesting projects going on and that he would be a great person to work with. I did end up e-mailing many of the professors he suggested I contact, but Dr. Graves was the only one who seemed genuinely interested in me. After a few weeks of corresponding with Dr. Graves, I applied to Iowa State and through his assistance, I received a Plant Sciences Fellowship. I subsequently began my Ph.D. program in the fall of 2001.
Having grown up in a mountainous part of the country, it took about a year for my wife and me to adjust to the comparatively flat terrain of Iowa. (As a side note, though, having lived in Illinois for the past couple of years, I now realize that central Iowa is not flat!) We soon fell in love with Ames, though, and cherish the memories of our time spent there and the other parts of Iowa that we were able to visit.
Not only was Dr. Graves a superb adviser and mentor, the Department of Horticulture at large was a wonderful environment to learn and develop the research and teaching skills I needed to successfully enter academia as a tenure-track assistant professor. I consider myself very fortunate to have developed very warm and productive relationships with several faculty and staff members in the Department. It's always a treat to cross paths with them at the annual American Society for Horticultural Science meetings. It's very reassuring to know that I have colleagues who want to see me succeed.
Several months before I was set to graduate in the summer of 2005, Dr. Graves encouraged me to start applying for open faculty positions. He helped me out every step of the way. I owe it to him for being able to land an excellent position in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I am currently an Assistant Professor of Horticultural Ecophysiology. I couldn't have asked for a more satisfying position. Not only do I get to teach Plant Propagation, but I am actively pursuing what I consider very interesting research in three main areas: native plant propagation, invasive plant ecophysiology, and biofuel feedstock production. The day of reckoning (i.e., the submission of my tenure package) is still a few years away, but I'm very grateful for the time I spent at Iowa State that helped me prepare for what I'm doing now.
