FACULTY RESEARCH EXPERTISE
Judith E. Skog, Professor Emeritus
PhD Cornell University, Paleobotany
MS University of Connecticut, Botany
Research Focus: Pteridophyte Evolution
Web Site: http://mason.gmu.edu/~jskog/
Office/Building: PW-OB 435
Phone: 703-993-1026
Email: Click Here
Dr. Skog was a professor in the Biology program at George Mason University and then professor (and now professor emerita) in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy.
Her research has focused on the evolutionary relationships of the pteridophytes as indicated by the fossil record and through molecular analyses, with the ultimate goal of documenting times of appearance of groups and the role of pteridophytes in the environments of the past, as well as the relationships of the extant and extinct taxa. The suggested phylogenies which best stand the tests of time are supported by fossil evidence. Her work has emphasized the ferns of the Cretaceous Age using the local Potomac Group and the Dakota Group. Other studies have included the Lower Carboniferous, Devonian, and Triassic. In addition, recent fern groups studied include the genera Anemia, Schizaea, and Elaphoglossum. Much of the work is now revisionary due to improved techniques of analysis such as molecular analysis, electron microscopy and computer analysis of characters. Gradually this work is leading to a view of more primitive families in the lower Cretaceous probably in the role of ground covers followed by newer families in the later Cretaceous in a less dominant position in the environment. Recent work has focused on the integration of all data: fossil, morphological and molecular, to elucidate the position and importance of the primitive families of ferns.
Dr. Skog has been a Research Associate at the National Museum for Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and also a visiting scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey. During her tenure she has also taught for a year at the University of Florida, was an associate at the Florida Museum of Natural History, a research professor at the University of Manchester in the U.K., and taught for two summers at Mountain Lake Biological Field Station in Virginia. She served as a joint program director in Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation in Environmental Biology and Biological Infrastructure for two years, then as Acting Deputy Division Director for Biological Infrastructure for a year from 2001 - 2003. In 2006-2007 she returned to NSF as Deputy Division Director for Biological Infrastructure and as Division Director from 2007-2009. Currently she is a consultant for the Biological Sciences Directorate.