The Starr Foundation has partnered with the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) to advance plant science, education, and nature-based solutions for the environment.
NYBG is a family-friendly oasis where nature’s beauty is on full display. NYBG engages visitors of all ages, from its children’s gardening program to continuing education programs, and its one-of-a-kind exhibits, such as the annual spring Orchid Show and winter Holiday Train Show, which captivate thousands of visitors each year. NYBG is also an essential center for learning and research, enabling important advances in plant science. The Starr Foundation has provided more than $20 million in funding to NYBG, including major support for its International Plant Science Center since 2002, establishing the C.V. Starr Virtual Herbarium, and creating the Maurice R. Greenberg Scholarship Fund to support doctoral-level study at NYBG.
C.V. Starr Virtual Herbarium
Building on NYBG’s legacy as a steward of globally significant research collections, the C.V. Starr Virtual Herbarium is a digital repository of more than 4 million botanical specimens of high priority to the global scientific community. This resource enables users to remotely access high-quality biodiversity information to advance science, biomedicine, environmental conservation, and sustainable development, helping scientists address pressing issues facing our planet, such as climate change, biodiversity and habitat loss, invasive species, food security, health care, and global sustainability for future generations.
Maurice R. Greenberg Scholarship Fund
NYBG’s Graduate Studies Program helps prepare tomorrow’s biodiversity leaders to meet the environmental, climate, and sustainable-development challenges facing human and natural communities. The Program enrolls graduate students from six affiliated universities—CUNY, Cornell, Columbia, Fordham, New York University, and Yale—with backgrounds in disciplines ranging from systematics and ethnobotany to forestry and genomics, and provides opportunities for specimen- and field-based research and application of molecular and genomic approaches to the plant sciences. The Maurice R. Greenberg Scholarship Fund was established in 2011 to support a doctoral-level student’s work toward the completion of his or her PhD research project.