Wagner received his BS and MS degrees from the University of Sao Paulo, in Brazil, and in 1998 he received his Ph.D. in Horticulture from the University of Georgia, where he worked with plant biotechnology. From October of 1998 to June of 2001, he worked as a post-doctoral associate at the School of Forest Resources, at the University of Georgia, working with tree biotechnology and tissue culture. Wagner started his appointment with the University of Florida in July 2001, where he is responsible for teaching courses in the area of Environmental Horticulture, such as Introductory Nursery Management, Plant Propagation, Orchidology, Palm Production and Culture, and Micropropagation of Horticultural Crops. He has also started a research program on ornamental plants aimed at the South Florida ornamental industry. Current projects involve tissue culture of native species with ornamental potential, cycad tissue culture, and for the future they will start projects with orchids, heliconias, and other ornamental species.

The title of Wagner's presentation is "History and Conservation of Orchids". His rationale is that he always sees practical presentations on how to cultivate different species and/or hybrids, but not much on history or conservation. Still, orchid history can be interesting and entertaining. Regarding conservation, we all know that CITES is a name loved and hated by many orchid lovers, so he intends to touch on the subject with general impressions on conservation. Finally, at the end of the presentation he would like to pick the audience's brains and discuss the recent controversy on the new Phragmipedium species which has been described by both Michael Kovach and Eric Christenson. That would make an interesting discussion!

This is going to be a great program! Hope to see you all there!