Professor Kenneth J. Sytsma joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Botany in summer 1985 and has served the department and university tirelessly ever since, including two stints as department chair. As a result, his upcoming retirement at the end of this semester marks a major transition for the department, worthy of many gifts, speeches, and toasts to celebrate Ken’s scientific accomplishments and thank him for his many contributions.
Over his career Sytsma mentored 5 post-docs and 25 graduate students (with three more close to finishing) published over 200 papers, and made innumerable contributions to plant molecular systematics, biogeography, floral biology, and floristics. He and his mentees made particularly impactful contributions to the systematics of families Bromeliaceae, Campanulaceae, Commelinaceae, Cyperaceae, Gentianaceae, Gesneriaceae, Lobeliaceae, Onagraceae, Rapateaceae, Rubiaceae, and Solanaceae and the orders Brassicales, Ericales, Myrtales, and Urticales. Sytsma’s research has deployed cutting-edge methods to make make important discoveries in historical biogeography, diversification rate, adaptive radiation, morphometrics, floral evolution, and hybridization.
As a gifted teacher, Sytsma has for many years taught important classes, such as Plant Systematics, Vascular Flora of Wisconsin, and Plant Geography to thousands of UW-Madison students. He has also taught numerous graduate seminar courses and several field courses in Hawai‘i and Venezuela. He has also played many important service roles, including many years as director of the Botany Major and two stints as Department Chair (1998-2001; 2022-2025).
There is so much to celebrate in Ken’s career, but those of you who know him may not be surprised to hear that he declined any kind of gala to mark his retirement. Instead, we decided to co-opt the department’s annual, end-of-year picnic, which happened May 2nd 2025 in Vilas Park, to thank and celebrate Ken.
Despite some chilly drizzle, the picnic attracted a particularly large crowd with a number of out-of-town guests, including several Sytsma-lab alumni (Bryan Drew, Chloe Drummond, Ricardo Kriebel, Jeff Rose, Jim Smith, and Daniel Spalink). At the event, David Baum (a former Sytsma post-doc) presented Ken with a Certificate of Appreciation, signed by all the current faculty. He also shared that many members of the department had pitched in to install a paver in Dr. Sytsma’s honor in the Botany Garden and also to provide some funds to help Ken and his wife Jackie purchase supplies for a post-retirement RV trip.
After sharing greetings from a few lab alumni who could not join us (Ben Grady, Chris Pires, and Joachim Kadhereit), the Sytsmites in attendance sang a humorous song of thanks and celebration to the tune of Nowhere Man by the Beatles (reproduced below).
The whole department of Botany sends Prof. Kenneth J. Sytsma sincere thanks and congratulations on his retirement!
Family Man
(To the tune of Nowhere Man by the Beatles. Words by David Baum.)
He’s a real family man
Biogeographic fan
Making systematic plans… for Bot’ny
Expert in phylogeny
Making trees from A to Z,
Onagraceae, Lamiaceae… many more
Family Man, please listen
Your skills, we’ll soon be missin’
Family man, the RV world
Is yours to command
He’s a real family man,
Sedges cosmopolitan
Ericaceae, Lamiaceae… many more.
Teacher quite extraordinaire
Never lost a single hair
Teaching systematics with… quiet the flair
Family Man, we’re wistful
But so thankful
Family Man, forty long years
Is not quite enough!
He’s a real family man
Driving in his family van
Raising kids from J to K and back again
Jacoba, Jesse, Kendra, too
Jane, and Kayla, Kendall – woo!
Jack, Jill-ian, Keera (phew!) … A Brady Bunch
Family Man, you’re daring,
Brilli-ant and caring,
Family Man, making an ask
never a command!
Leave it all to somebody [Anne!]
Think on Bot-ny fond(uh)ly
Make now all those future plans … so bold(uh)ly