Diane is a Research Associate in the Department of Botany at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, and also Adjunct Senior Scientist at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University. She is a respected authority on marine biology, especially tropical-marine botany. Current research focuses on relative dominance theory, functional morphology, and complex top-down (predation) vs. bottom-up (eutrophication) interactions in coral-reef systems. Other active research includes: monographic and phylogenetic systematics; seaweed experimental taxonomy; biodiversity, ecology, and conservation of tropical marine ecosystems.