Diatoms of North America
Somayyeh Kheiri
Taxon Contributor
Research Scientist Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, National Botanical Garden, Tehran, Iran
The Holy Land is everywhere. - Black Elk
My B.S. and M.S. degrees are on plant systematics, in which I studied the biosystematics of Verbascum (Scrophulariaceae) in West Azerbaijan, Iran. Subsequently, I began studying diatoms as the subject of my Ph.D dissertation. I became interested in diatoms because of their magical nature. With their artistic designs as seen with the microscope, diatoms fascinated my eyes. I also see the beauty of plants reflected in the diatoms. Diatoms can survive in nearly every condition and they let us know about what is happening for mother earth in present, past and predicting the future. I participated in the diatom course at Iowa Lakeside Lab in 2012. Thank you very much to Dr. Mark Edlund, Dr. Sarah Spaulding, Dr. Marina Potapova and Peter Van Der Linden for this opportunity. I will pursue the taxonomy and ecology of the freshwater diatom as one of my research interests during my life.