Jill Pflugheber
https://www.microcosmssacredplants.org/Jill is a 1986 graduate of St. Lawrence University. She worked 17 years in biomedical research at Harvard, University of Kentucky, and University of Texas SW Medical Center, where she was able to contribute to multiple journal articles such as Regulation of PKR and IRF-1 during hepatitis C virus RNA replication. Pflugheber J, Fredericksen B, Sumpter R Jr, Wang C, Ware F, Sodora DL, Gale M Jr.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Apr 2;99(7):4650-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.062055699. Epub 2002 Mar. She returned to her alma mater in 2004 to take a position as the Microscopy Specialist, teaching courses in electron microscopy, confocal microscopy, and research methods in cell biology. Each semester, the students in her confocal microscopy course participate in an “Image of the Semester” contest. Each student chooses a favorite image from their own portfolio of images, and anyone from the university community can vote for the “best” image. The university now prints each of the images used in the contest and mounts them for display on the walls of the Launders Science Library. Jill and Steven began their collaboration after Steven had seen and admired contest images, wondering what the leaf of Banisteriopsis caapi would look like under the confocal microscope. One image led to many, and after more than three years of sample collection and imaging, the Microcosmscollection was born. Originally slated for exhibit in the university’s Richard F. Brush Art Gallery, Microcosms: A Homage to Sacred Plants of the Americas was slated to run from March 2, 2020-April 11, 2020 but was closed early due to Covid precautions. Jill would like to dedicate her work on the Microcosms project to the memory of her sister Gina Wells (February 9, 1955–February 3, 2022), who was a Biology major at St. Lawrence University with a special interest in botany.
