Assistant Professor of Biology
Olmstead 214    maronsheim@vassar.edu    x7411
http://faculty.vassar.edu/~maronshe/ronsheim.html

Margaret Ronsheim joined the Vassar Faculty in 1992, and has taught courses in ecology (Biology 241), evolution (Biology 350, 301), conservation biology (Biology 185), plant diversity (Biology 208), and genetics (Biology 238). She is a faculty member in the Environmental Science Program as well as a participant in the Environmental Studies Development Project, and has served as an adviser for independent majors and STS majors interested in environmental science. She is half-time, as she shares a tenure-track position with her husband, John Long, also in the biology department. Her research interests focus on how the interactions between plants, pathogenic fungi, and mutualistic fungi may affect the evolution of plant reproduction and dispersal mechanisms. In particular, she is studying how the presence of mutualistic fungi (mycorrhizae) and a root pathogen may influence intraspecific interactions between plants, as well as testing for the presence of local adaptation to the fungal community.