Rate My Professor Richard Lupia

Richard Lupia is an Associate Professor and Frank and Henrietta Schultz Chair in the School of Geosciences at the University of Oklahoma, where he also holds the position of Associate Director and Head Curator at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. Additionally, he serves as Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Botany and Microbiology. He earned a B.A. in Biology with a minor in Geology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991, an M.S. in 1994, and a Ph.D. in 1997 from the University of Chicago's Committee on Evolutionary Biology. His doctoral dissertation, supervised by Dr. Peter R. Crane, examined the palynological record of the Cretaceous angiosperm radiation, focusing on diversity, abundance, and morphological patterns. Following his graduate studies, Lupia conducted postdoctoral research in paleobotany at The Field Museum in Chicago from 1997 to 1999, serving concurrently as adjunct interim curator. In 1999, he joined the University of Oklahoma as Assistant Professor in the School of Geology and Geophysics and Assistant Curator of Paleobotany and Micropaleontology at the Sam Noble Museum. He advanced to Associate Professor and Associate Curator in 2006.

Lupia's research centers on paleobotany, palynology, and paleoecology, exploring vegetation changes during critical intervals such as the Late Paleozoic Ice Age in Oklahoma and Kansas through palynology of core and outcrop samples, documenting shifts from humid- to arid-adapted floras approximately 310–275 million years ago. He investigates the diversification of heterosporous ferns concurrent with Cretaceous angiosperm expansion using scanning electron microscopy and database analyses from Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain sites. Other projects encompass taxonomy and anatomy of petrified wood floras from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation in Oklahoma, Utah, and Montana to reconstruct paleoecology and climate, as well as mesofossil floras revealing insect-plant interactions. Key publications include Lupia (2015), 'Mid-Cretaceous megaspore floras from Maryland, USA' in Journal of Paleontology; Lupia and Armitage (2013), 'Late Pennsylvanian–Early Permian vegetational transition in Oklahoma: Palynological record' in International Journal of Coal Geology; Lupia (2011), 'Late Santonian megaspore floras from the Gulf Coastal Plain (Georgia, USA)' in Journal of Paleontology; and Lupia et al. (1999), 'Discordant morphological disparity and taxonomic diversity during the Cretaceous angiosperm radiation: North American pollen record' in Paleobiology. With over 2,200 citations, his contributions have significantly influenced understandings of plant evolution and terrestrial ecosystem dynamics.