Susanne S. Renner

Renner is well-known for her contributions to understanding plant phylogenetics, biogeography, mating system evolution, plant-animal interactions and the evolution of sex chromosomes. In much of this work, molecular clocks and their calibration with fossils play a large role. Her work has focused on tropical as well as temperate families and continues to lead to the discovery of new species as well as floristic and monographic treatments. Her broad-ranging research program has led to important discoveries and many areas. For example, her findings have shown that variation in species richness among families of plants is very similar in all tropical forests in spite of millions of years of independent evolution and diversification, suggesting that community structure in rainforests cannot be attributed to the action of stochastic factors, in contradiction to neutral theory expectations.