Faculty Spotlight: Joseph Richards
Joseph Richards formally joined the Department of Biology faculty at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette as an Instructor of Biology in August of 2024. However, he has served as an Adjunct Faculty member and Emergency Temporary Instructor in the Department of Biology at UL Lafayette since Fall of 2020. Dr. Richards first joined the Department of Biology in 2011 as a PhD student studying the systematics of calcified marine red algae known as coralline algae. Dr. Richards earned his PhD in 2016 and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Department of Biology for five years publishing numerous algal systematics scientific research articles with the help of colleagues that cumulatively described over 12 species of algae new to science. Dr. Richards utilized DNA sequence analyses and Scanning Electron Microscopy to study the anatomy and evolutionary relationships of coralline algae from marine environments in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Egypt, Australia, and other locations worldwide.
Dr. Richards is a plant biologist who first became interested in botany while hiking through the forested glacial hills and valleys of the Kettle Moraine region in Wisconsin. Dr. Richards earned his BS in Biology with a focus on botany at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 2009. Dr. Richards’ undergraduate botanical research focused on surveys of bryophyte diversity (mosses and liverworts) and diversity of vascular plants in the forest understory, as well as surveys of phytoplankton diversity and harmful algal blooms in Wisconsin lakes. Dr. Richards is currently the manager of the UL Lafayette Herbarium in the Department of Biology where he assists colleagues in utilizing herbarium teaching and research resources. Dr. Richards also mentors undergraduate student herbarium workers and assists graduate students with their botanical research. Dr. Richards currently teaches BIOL 110 Fundamentals of Biology I, BIOL 112 Fundamentals of Biology I Laboratory, and BIOL 433G Plant Systematics and Biodiversity. Dr. Richards is interested in the species diversity and flowering times of the native flora of Louisiana, as well as the diversity of introduced species of plants in the landscape.
Contact Dr. Richards or learn more through these links:
Joseph.Richards@louisiana.edu
Biology Department faculty page