ANN ARBOR, MI — Thais Vasconcelos’ early interest in plants stems from her childhood in Brazil.

“I used to love to go out and about and walk in the middle of nature since I was a little kid, and when it was time to decide on a career, I knew that I wanted to be a naturalist,” she said.

Vasconcelos, 36, is now in charge of a collection of over 1.7 million plant specimens as the director of the University of Michigan Herbarium.

“I was happy that the department recognized my passion for seeing our collections grow and be used and be studied by a broader audience,” the professor of ecology and evolutionary biology from Brasilia, Brazil, said.

Having officially started her role in July, Vasconcelos is the first female director of the herbarium. She said “it’s about time” a woman led the uni

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