Peter D. Cowan

EDUCATION

Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley 2005-2010

Title: Flammability, physiology and coexistence in fire prone environments

Advisor: Dr. David D. Ackerly

Departmentalent: Integrative Biology

Course work: evolution, ecological uses of stable isotopes, and communication of science

MS Stanford University 2003-2005

Department: Biological Sciences

Research: Fire ecology and mathematical modeling

Course work: ethics, soil science, statistics, biogeochemistry, plant ecophysiology, and bicycle manufacturing

BA Kalamazoo College 1998-2002

Major: Biology

Thesis title: The hydraulic design of mesomorphic tree leaves: Hydraulic resistance, anatomical correlates, and the effect of damaging venation and mesophyll

Honors: Magna Cum Laude, and Honors in Biology

RELEVANT WORK EXPERIENCE

Visiting Fellow at the American Meteorological Society Policy Program 2013-Present

Consultant to the California Senate Office of Research 2012-12

• Responded to member and staff research requests on a range of issues including governor’s appointments, federal law, climate change, and hydraulic fracturing

Consultant to the California Senate Environmental Quality Committee 2011-12

• Wrote public committee analyses, briefed the committee chair and member staff on environmental quality issues including climate change, solid waste, recycling, and hydraulic fracturing
• Staffed legislation on behalf of the committee chair

California Council on Science and Technology Policy Fellow 2010-11

• Worked for the California Senate Committee on Environmental Quality
• Analyzed legislation and policy for the committee
• Staffed legislation on behalf of the committee chair

NSF GK-12 STEM Fellow, Adams Middle School 2007-9

• Collaborated with three middle school science teachers to develop curriculum and lesson which I then taught to 2-3 7th grade classes a week
• Topics included California biodiversity, evolution, and the process of science
• Planned and carried out four separate weekend field trips for 10-15 7th graders to visit University of California research preserves

Google Summer of Code Student 2008 (Summer)

• Developed code for visualizing evolutionary trees during a 12 week period for the open source evolutionary statistics package phylobase

Graduate Student Instructor at UC Berkeley 2005-7

• Led regular discussion and laboratory sections
• Wrote exams and laboratory exercises

Computer Lab Technician at University of Michigan 1999 (Summer)

RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

Effect of smoke on plant physiology: Is smoke bad for tobacco too?
Cowan, P. D. and Moritz, M. A.
ESA Annual Meeting (2010)

Post-fire regeneration strategy and the Mutch hypothesis in California chaparral
Cowan, P. D. and Ackerly, D. D.
International Journal of Wildland Fire 19:  984—989 (2010)

Special session: Application of large calorimeters for assessing flammability traits
Cowan, P. D. and Ackerly, D. D.
The International Fire Ecology and Management Congress (2009)

Evolution of a circular trait: Phenology in Banksia (Proteaceae)
Cowan, P. D., Bolmgren, K., Mast, A. R., and Ackerly, D. D.
Botany 2008 (2008)

Time–size tradeoffs: a phylogenetic comparative study of flowering time, plant height and seed mass in a northtemperate flora
Bolmgren, K. and Cowan, P. D.
Oikos 117:  424—429 (2008)

Co-occurrence of multiple life history strategies in fire-prone landscapes
Cowan, P. D. and Ackerly, D. D.
ESA/SER Annual Meeting (2007)

New method for the assessment of fuel loads in chaparral
Cowan, P. D. and Ackerly, D. D.
3rd International Fire Ecology and Management Congress (2006)

The major veins of mesomorphic leaves revisited: Tests for conductive overload in Acer saccharum (Aceraceae) and Quercus rubra (Fagaceae)
Sack, L. and Cowan, P. D. and Holbrook, N. M.
American Journal of Botany  90:  32—39 (2003)

The ‘hydrology’ of leaves: co-ordination of structure and function in temperate woody species
Sack, L. and Cowan, P. D. and Jaikumar, N. and Holbrook, N. M.
Plant Cell and Environment  26:  1343—1356 (2003)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Evolution, Ecology, & Botany at UC Berkeley 2009-10 & 2005-6

• Led weekly debates of current and controversial topics in science
• Led weekly laboratory

Plant Ecophysiology at UC Berkeley 2007

• Wrote exams and co-led the laboratory
• Guided students, in groups of 2-4, in the development and completion of a publication quality plant physiology project using cutting edge techniques and instruments

Plant Community Ecology at UC Berkeley 2006

• Led two weekly discussion sections focused on current and classic primary literature

Guest Lecture for Plant Community Ecology at UC Berkeley 2006

Botany laboratory at Stanford University 2003

GRANTS & FELLOWSHIPS

Title	Funder	Years
GK-12 STEM Fellowship	National Science Foundation	2007 & 2008
Summer of Code	Google	2008
Heckard Research	Jepson Herbarium	2008
Research Block	UC Berkeley	2006-9
Graduate Research	UC Berkeley	2007
Stipend Block	UC Berkeley	2007
Research Travel	UC Berkeley	2006
Mellon Foundation	Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve	2004

OTHER

• Programming

  R statistical language, python, LaTeX, HTML, CSS, and SQL

• Open Source

  Administrator for the picante and phylobase evolutionary statistics packages for the R language

• Interests

  Cycling, hiking, bike building, and photography

• Departmental faculty retreat graduate student representative
• Appalachian Trail through-hiker