Rate My Professor Jay Bolin

Jay Bolin, Ph.D., is Professor of Biology and Dean of Natural Sciences at Catawba College. He holds a B.S. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, an M.S. and Ph.D. from Old Dominion University, and completed post-doctoral studies in the Department of Botany at the Smithsonian Institution. Before joining Catawba College in 2011 as Assistant Professor of Biology, Bolin served as a Smithsonian Research Collaborator and taught at Trinity Washington University and the University of Namibia. He progressed to Associate Professor and Chair of the Biology Department, and was appointed Dean of Science and the Environment in January 2022.

Bolins research specializes in plant systematics, molecular phylogenetics, plant ecology, and parasitic plants, particularly the holoparasitic genus Hydnora of the Hydnoraceae. He has described new species including Hydnora visseri and Hydnora arabica. In 2023, he co-authored a monograph on Hydnora plants in which colleagues named a new species after him, Hydnora bolinii, endemic to Ethiopia and Somalia. Select publications include Single-copy nuclear genes place haustorial Hydnoraceae within Piperales and reveal a Cretaceous origin of multiple parasitic angiosperm lineages (PLoS ONE, 2013, 128 citations); Detecting and Characterizing the Highly Divergent Plastid Genome of the Nonphotosynthetic Parasitic Plant Hydnora visseri (Hydnoraceae) (Genome Biology and Evolution, 2016, 100 citations); Pollination Biology of Hydnora africana Thunb. (Hydnoraceae) in Namibia: Brood-Site Mimicry with Insect Imprisonment (International Journal of Plant Sciences, 2009, 63 citations); Floral thermogenesis of three species of Hydnora (Hydnoraceae) in Africa (Annals of Botany, 2009, 55 citations); and A taxonomic revision of the genus Hydnora (Hydnoraceae) (2024). Bolin has over 900 citations across 48 publications. He has utilized Wiki Education in Plant Taxonomy and Dendrology courses for over five years, with students contributing Wikipedia articles on North Carolina plants. His students regularly present research at conferences, earning awards such as the Frank G. Brooks Award for Excellence in Student Research.