Activity of Woody Perennials Through Winter

press release: Once again, the Friends of Allen Centennial are hosting a winter class series in January and February. Find more information and register for one class or many here. Classes are $15. (As always, registration is free for Friends members. However, the registration password has changed. Please email uwacgfriends@gmail.com with any questions.)

Feb. 18: Al Kovalesky studies the physiological processes that determine how plants control cold hardiness and dormancy during the winter and how that leads to budbreak and flowering in spring. This knowledge can then be used to inform models predicting phenology to understand how plants can survive in different environments or future climates. His work explores the question: Can we predict adaptation of a plant to an environment based on winter responses?

Al received an undergraduate degree in agronomic engineering in his native country, Brazil, before coming to the US to pursue graduate studies in horticulture at the University of Florida and Cornell University. While conducting his doctoral research, he became interested in the relationship between bud development and cold hardiness. His focus since coming to UW in 2021 is research at the molecular level to understand the clock mechanism that plants use to keep track of time at low temperatures and know when to break dormancy to start growing again.