About Matt Ritter
Dr. Matt Ritter is one of California’s premier plant experts specializing in cultivated trees, a world-renowned researcher of Eucalyptus trees, and an award-winning teacher. He attended UC Santa Barbara to earn a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and UC San Diego for a Ph.D. in plant biology. Dr. Ritter is currently a botany professor in the biology department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and has authored numerous scientific papers as well as natural history guidebooks, children’s literature, and adult fiction. He won the Cal Poly Distinguished Teaching Award, the International Society of Arboriculture’s Excellence in Education Award, and the California Urban Forests Council Excellence in Education Award. In addition to these achievements, Dr. Ritter served as Editor-in-Chief of Madroño, the journal of the California Botanical Society, is the California coordinator of the U.S. National Register of Big Trees, and a contributing author to the Flora of North America project.
