Rate My Professor Eric Burkhart

Eric Burkhart, PhD, is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Penn State University, contributing to teaching and research in forest biology, botany, ethnobotany, and agroforestry. He earned a B.A. in Ethnobotany (dual curriculum in Anthropology and Botany) from Idaho State University in 1999, an M.S. in Horticulture from Penn State University in 2002, and a Ph.D. in Forest Resources from Penn State University in 2011. Burkhart directs the Appalachian Botany and Ethnobotany program at Shaver's Creek Environmental Center and has built a career focused on interdisciplinary work in wild plant stewardship, non-timber forest products, and sustainable forest management.

Burkhart's research specializes in agroforestry, particularly forest farming of Appalachian species including American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), ramps (Allium tricoccum), ghost pipe (Monotropa uniflora), and prickly-ash (Zanthoxylum spp.). His collaborative projects explore habitat modeling, genetic diversity, phytochemistry, chemical ecology, and sustainable harvesting, with recent efforts in Central America (Belize, Costa Rica) and the Caribbean (U.S. Virgin Islands). He advises graduate students such as Ph.D. candidates Savannah Anez (Monotropa uniflora phytochemistry) and Sims Kirk Lawson (Allium and Zanthoxylum crops). Courses taught include FOR 203 Field Dendrology, FOR 303 Herbaceous Forest Plant Identification, Ecology, and Ethnobotany, FOR 403 Invasive Forest Plant Identification, Ecology, and Management, FOR 418 Agroforestry: Science, Design, and Practice, and FOR 499 Food and Agroforestry Systems in Costa Rica. Key publications comprise 'Perspectives and behaviors surrounding planting practices in North America inform genetic conservation realities for American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius)' (2026, Plants, People, Planet), 'New microsatellite markers distinguish two species of ramps (Allium tricoccum Ait. complex)' (2025, PLOS One), 'Ghost Pipe then and now: The influence of digital media on the medicinal use of Monotropa uniflora L. in the United States' (2025, Economic Botany), 'Habitat modeling of ramps (Allium tricoccum) in Pennsylvania: guidance for forest farming' (2024, Wild), and 'Two ramp taxa, Allium tricoccum Ait. and A. burdickii, differ in abiotic habitat characteristics and floristic associates in Pennsylvania' (2023, Natural Areas Journal). Burkhart's scholarship advances conservation strategies and agroforestry practices across eastern North America.