My current research focus is on the response of alpine tundra and alpine treeline to climate change. I am examining the multiscale nature of the composition of alpine tundra communities across the Europe and western North America, and I develop simulations of the effects of white pine blister rust on treeline dynamics and patterns. My broad research agenda has had a continuing focus on biodiversity, and diverse aspects are linked by a focus on the interaction of spatial pattern and process. I address how spatial patterns (e.g., natural or human-caused fragmentation) and processes (e.g., dispersal) affect vegetation dynamics and ecological sustainability in response to human-induced changes such as climatic change and altered disturbance regimes. My research integrates fieldwork, including quantitative vegetation sampling, computer simulations, and statistical analyses. I use simulations to investigate dispersal and plant community dynamics in fragmented landscapes. Much of my past fieldwork was based in the northern Rocky Mountains, where I studied patterns and processes at alpine treeline, and simulation work is now focused on the interactions of multiple drivers of change, especially for treelines with whitebark pine. I am now looking at large datasets for alpine tundra patterns across Europe as well as western North America. My teaching philosophy arises from a background in liberal arts. My purpose is to have students learn how to think, how to organize information, how to evaluate ideas, and how to present their own ideas. At a graduate level I stress critical analysis through a wide reading of the literature, through a sharper critique of current theory, and finally through bringing new data to bear on what students have defined as an assailable frontier of knowledge.