Greg Murray grew up in southern California, where the seashores, deserts and mountains that one can visit in a single day were the perfect place for a budding young field biologist. As an undergraduate he focused on marine ecology, but switched to seabirds and rodents when he got the chance to study their breeding ecology and interactions on an island off the coast of southern California for several months at a time. Later, his research focus shifted to the study of interactions between tropical rainforest plants, the birds that pollinate their flowers, and those that disperse their seeds.

Along the way he and Kathy Winnett found one another, and after they received their master’s degrees in biology they married and pursued doctoral studies at the University of Florida. In 1986 they both joined the biology faculty of Hope College. They retired from the teaching faculty in 2021 and now live in Prescott, Arizona, but Murray maintains several active research projects and still has senior researcher status at the college.

Dr. Murray taught courses ranging from introductory biology to upper-level explorations of topics including population and community ecology, conservation biology, mathematical biology, and marine biology and biophysics. He was especially active in curriculum development in the Department of Biology, and in integrating field experience into the department’s courses.

Throughout his career at Hope, Dr. Murray continued his studies of plant-animal interactions in the mountains of Costa Rica. Having also studied the ecology of sea urchins, lizards, rodents, temperate songbirds, pond ecosystems, invasive plants and insects, and the defensive chemicals and microbial communities associated with dormant seeds in forest soils, he is a firm believer in the value of a broad background, especially at the undergraduate level.

Areas of Expertise

Dr. Murray has broad interests in ecology and evolutionary biology, especially in plant/animal interactions, community ecology and vertebrate feeding ecology. His primary research focuses on the ways in which plants, fruit-eating birds, seed predators and pathogens, and physical disturbance regimes interact to determine community structure in tropical forests.

Since 1980 he has conducted detailed studies of seed dispersal, forest dynamics and plant demography in a cloud forest at Monteverde, Costa Rica, concentrating on a group of “pioneer plants” — species that start the regeneration process after human or natural disturbance.

His ongoing research includes work with Hope mathematician Dr. Brian Yurk that incorporates plant demography and forest disturbance rate data into mathematical models to understand how tropical forests “work” and how they shape the evolution of pioneer plant characteristics.

He also continues a long-term collaborative effort with Hope College chemists, most recently Dr. Elizabeth Sanford, to identify the chemicals that can protect pioneer species’ seeds in the soil for decades or even hundreds of years. With Dr. Winnett-Murray and others, he also is tracking ecological shifts in a West Michigan hemlock forest that is undergoing a potentially devastating insect infestation.

Education

• Ph.D., zoology, University of Florida, 1986
• M.S., biology, California State University, 1980
• B.A., biology, California State University, 1977

Selected Honors and Grants

• Appointed to T. Elliot Weier Professor of Plant Science endowed professorship, 2017
• “Modeling forest dynamics and pioneer plant populations in the Monteverde Cloud Forest,” Hope College Jacob E. Nienhuis Collaborative Faculty Summer Research Grant (co-PI with Dr. Brian Yurk, Dept. of Mathematics), 2016
• “An Interdisciplinary Study of Bocconia and Macleaya (Poppy Relatives): Systematic Relationships, Invasive History, and Chemical Profiles,” Hope College-Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Development Grant for Interdisciplinary Research (co-PI with Drs. Jianhua Li [Department of Biology] and Kenneth Brown [Department of Chemistry]), 2015
• “Microbial Interactions in Dormant Seeds: Training a Collaborative Team to Integrate the Microbiome with Plant Population Ecology,” Great Lakes Colleges Association, New Directions Program (co-PI with Drs. Aaron Best, Thomas Bultman, Jianhua Li and Kathy Winnett-Murray, Department of Biology), 2012
• “Acquisition of Instrumentation to Determine Provenance of Environmental Samples,” National Science Foundation (co-PI with Dr. Graham Peaslee, Departments of Chemistry and Geology and Environmental Science, and Dr. Stephen Remillard, Department of Physics), 2010
• “A strategic development plan for the Hope College field station,” National Science Foundation (co-PI with T.L. Bultman, E.C. Hansen, D. Swarthout and K. Winnett-Murray), 2005
• “Antifungal compounds in seeds of pioneer plants: effects on community-level processes in a Costa Rican cloud forest,” Hope College-Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Development Grant for Interdisciplinary Research (co-PI with Dr. William Mungall, Department of Chemistry), 2005
• “Marine Biology and Biophysics,” Hope College-Howard Hughes Faculty Development Grant for Interdisciplinary Course Development (co-PI with P. Gonthier, Department of Physics), 2005
• “Integrating mathematics and biology: a case studies approach to linear algebra,” National Science Foundation (co-PI with Dr. Janet Andersen, Department of Mathematics), 2000
• “Instrumentation to integrate pattern and process in organismal biology and ecology,” National Science Foundation (co-PI with Dr. Kathy Winnett-Murray), 1998
• “Dynamics of tropical forest seed banks: seed predators as determinants of community structure and plant-frugivore coevolution,” National Science Foundation, 1993
• “A Microcomputer Classroom for the Biological and Chemical Sciences,” National Science Foundation, 1990

Selected Published Work

• “Effects of Urbanization on the Population Structure of Freshwater Turtles across the United States,” with D.R. Bowne et al., Conservation Biology, 2018
• “Diversity of Seeds Captured by Interception Exceeds Diversity of Seeds Deposited in Traps,” with J.L. Stone et al., Biotropica, 2017
• “Differential diversifications of South American and eastern Asian Disjunct genera Bocconia and Macleaya (Papaveraceae),” with J. Li et al., Journal of Systematics and Evolution, 2017
• “Chemical Defense and the Persistence of Pioneer Plant Seeds in the Soil of a Tropical Cloud Forest,” with J.W. Veldman et al., Biotropica, 2007
• “Photosynthetic Strategies and their Consequences for Plant Community Structure,” with K. Winnett-Murray and L. Hertel, Tested studies for laboratory teaching, vol. 26; Proceedings of the 26th Workshop/Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE), 2005
• “Island biogeography, species diversity, and the design of nature preserves,” with K. Winnett-Murray and L. Hertel, Tested studies for laboratory teaching, vol. 23; Proceedings of the 23rd Workshop/Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE), 2002
• “Plant-animal interactions,” with S. Kinsman and J. Bronstein, in N.M. Nadkarni and N.T. Wheelwright (eds.), Monteverde: Ecology and Conservation of a Tropical Cloud Forest, 2000
• “Seasonal fruit preferences and digestive correlates in American Robins,” with C.A. Lepczyk et al., The Auk, 2000
• “Plant succession, landscape management, and the ecology of frugivorous birds in abandoned Amazonian pastures,” with J.M. Cardoso da Silva and C. Uhl, Conservation Biology 1996
• “Fruit laxatives and seed passage rates in frugivores: consequences for plant reproductive success,” with S. Russell et al., Ecology, 1994
• “The influence of seed packaging and fruit color on feeding preferences of American Robins,” with K. Winnett-Murray et al., Vegetatio, 1993
• “Swainson’s Thrush,” in R. Brewer et al (eds.), The atlas of breeding birds of Michigan, 1991
• “Avian seed dispersal of three neotropical gap-dependent plants,” Ecological Monographs, 1988
• “Selection for optimal fruit crop size in bird-dispersed plants,” American Naturalist, 1987
• “Tropical fruit‑eating birds and their food plants: a survey of a Costa Rican lower montane forest,” with N.T. Wheelwright et al., Biotropica, 1984
•  “Breeding Biology of the Xantus’ Murrelet,” with K.A. Winnett‑Murray et al., Condor, 1983

View all of Greg Murray’s published work at Google Scholar.

Outside the College

Dr. Murray enjoys fishing, kayaking and hiking, though he spends far less time on such pursuits than he ought to. A former member of the college’s “Green Team,” he’s an enthusiastic supporter of bringing science to bear on environmental and economic problems, and was active in local, regional and national conservation organizations including the West Michigan Environmental Action Council and the Holland Climate Collaborative in Holland, Michigan. In retirement, he has continued that emphasis on sustainability, climate resiliency and wildlife conservation in Arizona. He’s also pathologically devoted to his Australian Shepherds, Mookie and Charlie.