At The Garden — Employment

Employment at the Chicago Botanic Garden

TITLE: Collections Specialist, Plant Collections — FILLED

PURPOSE: Assist the curators in data-gathering and analysis for the Garden’s plant collections.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Perform literature research, review current collection holdings, and determine redundancy, commercial availability, and nativity of taxa.
Develop lists of new acquisitions and sources for the Garden’s plant collections.
Help to evaluate more than 3,300 existing plants from foreign expeditions for quantity, health, location, and provenance-based adaptability.
Denote in specialized collections database targeted acquisitions, potential countries/regions and commercial sources for additions to the specialized collections.
Conduct “weed risk assessment” for plants targeted and collected on expeditions.
Create and produce high quality reports.

DEPARTMENT: Collections

REPORTS TO: Curators of Herbaceous and Woody Plants

SUPERVISES: Volunteers as appropriate

COOPERATIVE RELATIONSHIPS: Horticulture and Plant Collections

POSITION REQUIREMENTS: Bachelor’s degree in horticulture or botany preferred. Proficiency with Microsoft Office and Excel software. Knowledge in plants required. Detail-oriented with strong communication and organizational skills.