Matthew Palmer

Palmer is one of the best lecturers I've ever had here at Columbia. EBII was the first science class I've taken since high school, and his lecture section was the most clear and easy to understand. He breaks down concepts very well and is very welcoming in his office hours. I also thought his section was the most interesting compared to the others, but Professor Olsen and Dyhrman were also great.

Prof.Palmer is awesome. Would consider taking a botany class just to have him as a lecturer again. So engaging. So cool. So fun.

One of the best classes I have ever taken at Columbia. You get into a self-selecting group of amazing people who are really into nature / camping / hiking. Matt and Kevin are incredible profs who are truly dedicated to conveying understanding on forest development, and it is honestly such a treat to be able to spend so much time with them. What more do you want than to go camping and exploring forests with Matt and Kevin!

STAY AWAY FROM THIS CLASS. It is the biggest waste of time. Meets once a week for 2 hours, mandatory 1 hour discussion section each week, about 3 mandatory field trips, two of which are full day excursions. We learned absolutely nothing of substance. The entire course can be summarized like this: The philosophical basis of conservation is questionable. We don't have much data, so our models suck and our understanding of the natural system is very limited. We should do lots of research and then integrate the results with social, political, economic, cultural, and spiritual considerations to engage stakeholders and conserve the system. Assignment: There's a reservoir in Central Park. Let's restore it! Go! (what are we restoring? why? how much money? what time frame? what species live there? these are apparently irrelevant questions and we are not given the answers) That's actually it. No science. None. At all. Just a lot of focus on integrating it into some kind of vague socio-politico-economic framework. This general lack substance be a lot less frustrating if the class wasn't SO MUCH WORK. It's not hard, it's just time consuming. Very, very time consuming. The sad part is, the professors are both cool and extremely knowledgeable. Matt is a plant guy, and Sacha focuses on insects; they both know a lot about generally under-studied topics in environmental bio, yet do not impart…

I gained a strong understanding of botany, plant systematics, and developed strong plant identification skills.

All of the omics! (Computational Genomics 2). Very much so focused on taking data from our own research and using it to answer research questions we were interested in.

Matt is an incredible lecturer. He is very kind and explains concepts with patience and understanding. I would strongly recommend taking Matt's class whenever you are able to.

I liked Professor Palmer the best out of all the professors that I had for Life Systems (Professor Olsen and Professor Dyhrman were the other ones). Although I feel like some of the material he covered in class was a bit basic (things that were introduced a lot in APES or just mostly common sense, Professor Palmer does introduce some new interesting ways of thinking about biodiversity of life on Earth. Additionally, he is a really good lecturer in the sense that he goes at a good pace for explaining things and actively engages with students. Professor Palmer often makes a couple of jokes in each lecture that makes it easier to pay attention to. There was also an issue with how the TAs for each lab section were grading with different standards, and he was really easy to talk to about this issue and clearly loves to teach.

Weekly "exercises" that take hours and teach you nothing except the art of bullshit (which, let's be honest, you've probably already mastered!). 2 journal articles weekly (discussed in section), generally literature reviews, opinion pieces, or modeling studies that say little. No midterm, take home final (I haven't taken it yet). There's an optional paper you can write to decrease the weight of the exercises and final exam, but if you work hard on the exercises it probably isn't necessary.

I learned so much about botany and systematics of plants!