In recent years, I have worked mostly on plant phenology (related to historic and ongoing climate change), the evolution of plant sex chromosomes, and the origin and domestication of Cucurbitaceae crops. I also publish on the data storage and data re-use in taxonomy and how to attached names to species - with Codes of Nomenclature - a topic that requires discussion across research communities (bacteria, archaea, cultivated and uncultivated Prokaryotes, algae, plants, higher animals) and that bears on conservation biology.

My mentoring experience comes mostly from having trained Latin American, European, and Chinese doctoral students and postdocs.