Sean Graham

Sean Graham is Professor and former Head (2016-2021) of the Department of Botany at the University of British Columbia. His research program integrates phylogenomics, comparative genomics, and systematic botany to reconstruct plant evolutionary history.

Research focuses on three primary areas: plastid genome evolution in mycoheterotrophic plants, deep phylogeny of land plants, and evolutionary biodiversity of understudied lineages. His team develops molecular approaches to resolve contentious relationships in plant phylogeny, particularly in bryophytes, ferns, and early-diverging angiosperms.

Honors include Distinguished Fellow of the Botanical Society of America and recognition as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher. He currently advises eight graduate students and has mentored 27 graduate researchers to completion. His laboratory maintains active collaborations with botanical gardens worldwide and contributes to large-scale phylogenomic initiatives like the One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes Project.