Position Title
Chair, Academic Senate
Daniel Potter is Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis and faculty director of the UC Davis herbarium. He began his two-year term as Chair of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate on September 1, 2026.
Potter's research and teaching interests are focused on angiosperm systematics (phylogeny, evolution, and taxonomy of flowering plants) and ethnobotany (the study of relationships between people and culturally significant plants). Some projects in his lab bring together these interests through studies of the diversity and relationships of crop plants and their wild relatives, while others focus on systematics, conservation, and traditional cultural importance of selected members of the amazingly diverse native flora of California. Potter currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Systematic Botany, the professional journal of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists.