Erin Zimmerman, an IRBV student who completed her Ph.D. in 2014 under the supervision of Anne Bruneau, had her very first book published last spring.

In Unrooted: botany, motherhood and the fight to save an old science, she tells us about her childhood in rural Ontario where she developed her fascination with plants. She explains how this obsession led her to university to become a professional botanist.

This career choice was a challenge for Erin because natural history – the collection, description and classification of species – is in many ways a science in decline. But for Erin, it’s a science worth fighting for.

In her memoir, Erin traces her career path and argues for the importance of maintaining natural history research, not just because there are still around 100 000 species of plants yet to be discovered, but also because this science is crucial in the fight against the loss of biodiversity. Unfortunately, despite her passion for the study of plants, Erin’s career choices were restricted by lack of institutional support and subtle but pervasive sexism in academia.

Unrooted is a scientific memoir, a glimpse into someone’s ordinary life in a fascinating field. It is about plants and what it means to be a woman in the world of research, an environment that excludes mothers and those with responsibilities outside the laboratory. Erin reflects on her experiences as a new parent, her decision to leave her post-graduate research position, and how she found a new way to stay in the field she loves. It ends with a call to action for all those who wish to contribute to the fight to save species.