Donald Pfister is Asa Gray Research Professor of Systematic Botany and Curator Emeritus of the Farlow Library and Herbarium. At Harvard he served in many roles including Faculty Dean at Kirkland House, Dean of the Harvard Summer School, Interim Dean of Harvard College and Director of the Harvard University Herbaria. His research has focused on the classification and diversity of fungi, history of collections and collectors of biological materials. He has done field work in many regions around the world, most recently in southern South America. He has taught courses ranging from the biology of fungi to plants used by people to forests and climate change. At home he enjoys working a large and varied garden. Before Harvard he was an assistant professor at the University of Puerto Rico, a graduate student at Cornell University and earned an undergraduate degree at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. His wife, Cathleen Pfister, served in Kirkland House and worked in the Botany Libraries at Harvard. They have three daughters.
Asa Gray Research Professor of Systematic Botany and Curator Emeritus of the Farlow Library and Herbarium