Rate My Professor Cliff Morden

Cliff Morden is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. degree from Texas A&M University. Since joining the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 1992, he advanced in the Department of Botany, serving as an associate professor by 2005 and interim director of Lyon Arboretum that year. Morden is a notable caretaker of the Joseph F. Rock Herbarium and the designated contact for the Hawaiian Plant DNA Library in the Consortium of Pacific Herbaria. His career encompasses mentoring graduate students on projects in molecular phylogenetics, biogeography, and conservation genetics of Hawaiian flora. He has delivered university seminars, including a 2024 talk titled “Shedding light on symbiosis: lessons from a bioluminescent coral reef fish,” and participated in the Assessment Leadership Institute cohort in 2020.

Morden's academic interests center on population genomics and conservation strategies for critically endangered Hawaiian species, including Kokia, Portulaca, and Sida fallax. His research addresses genetic diversity, evolution, biogeography, and hybridization in endemic Hawaiian plants such as Acacia, Sesbania, Euphorbia, and Bidens, as well as phylogenomics, chloroplast genomics, pollination biology of species like Brighamia insignis and Clermontia, invasive Poaceae hybrids, and fungal diversity from plant DNA banks. He employs molecular techniques including RAPD, ISSR, SRAP, microsatellite markers, and chloroplast genome assembly. Key publications include “Population Genomics Informs Conservation Strategies for Critically Endangered Kokia Species in Hawai‘i” (2025), “A reevaluation of the nomenclature of Hawaiian Acacia” (2025), “Genetic Diversity Among Populations of Endemic Hawaiian Portulaca sclerocarpa and P. villosa (Portulacaceae) Assessed Using SRAP Markers” (2025), “Genomic diversity and evolution in the Hawaiian Islands endemic Kokia (Malvaceae)” (2024), “Population genetics of Sida fallax Walp. (Malvaceae) in the Hawaiian Islands” (2024), “Spontaneous hybridization among invasive Poaceae in Hawai‘i: Chloris × pseudosagrana nothosp. nov. and Cenchrus × peregrinus nothosp. nov.” (2024), “Tetramolopium stemmermanniae (Asteraceae), a New Species from Pōhakuloa Training Area, Hawai'i Island” (2023), and “A comparison of freezer-stored DNA and herbarium tissue samples for chloroplast assembly and genome skimming” (2023). Morden has authored over 300 publications, accumulating nearly 5,000 citations.