Sarah Jacobs

Dr. Sarah Jacobs is Assistant Curator of Botany and Howell Chair of Western North American Botany at the California Academy of Sciences. She leads the curation of ~2.3 million herbarium specimens with a focus on Western North American plants. Her research lab studies plant speciation in the genus Castilleja (paintbrushes) using morphological, molecular, and ecological datasets.

• Education: B.S. (University of Arkansas), M.S. (Washington State University), PhD (University of Idaho), Postdoc (UCLA)

Research Interests: Diversification drivers in plants, phylogenetic methods, cytonuclear discordance, polyploidy dynamics, and species boundary challenges in rapidly evolving lineages. Her work spans evolutionary biology, genomics, and conservation science.

Projects: Genus-wide Castilleja phylogenetics, species delimitation in complex plant groups, and genomic resource generation including reference genome construction and ploidy estimation.

Outreach: Actively participates in field-based education programs for high school and undergraduate students, fighting "plant blindness" through public science engagement.