President and Director

Ph.D. in Systematic Botany, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, 1971
M.S. in Botany, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1966
B.S. in Biology, City College of New York, 1963
Systematic botanist, with specialization in conservation of biodiversity

Sy, in addition to his duties as Director, brings expertise in biological infrastructure, biodiversity conservation, systematics of the paleotropical members of the genus Psychotria (Rubiaceae or coffee family), floristics of Hawaii, the Pacific, Papuasia, and Malesia, to the institution. In his career, he has carried out fieldwork in various parts of the continental United States, Hawaii, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. Sy is BRIT's representative to the Ethnobotanical Products Investigation Consortium (EPIC), a consortium with scientists from the University of North Texas Health Science Center and Texas Christian University. He is also involved with the studies of plants in the maintenance of human health.

Phone: 817.335.8158
Fax: 817.332.4112
E-mail: ssohmer@brit.org