Michael J. Balick, AG ’75, says he sometimes feels as if his life moves “between two worlds.”

It’s not unusual for the internationally known ethnobotanist to attend a formal dinner in Manhattan one evening and, the next day, to carry his well-worn duffel bag onto a plane bound for the Pacific islands of Micronesia. A day later, he might be talking with a “Nahnken,” or oratory chief, on the isolated island of Pohnpei about the ways in which residents there use certain ceremonial beverages.

Even back home, Balick’s life is far from ordinary. His current research includes frequent visits to traditional Dominican healers in New York City to learn more about how they use various medicinal plants in their practices.

“I have a fascinating life,” Balick acknowledges. “I’m very lucky.”

Balick, who works for The New York Botanical Garden, recently has earned some high-profile recognition. He was named a 2005 Guggenheim Fellow and was awarded the 2004 International Scientific Cooperation Award from the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Balick, who has conducted more than 75 research expeditions to work with traditional cultures around the world, is credited with helping to renew and transform the academic discipline of ethnobotany, which is the study of the relationship between people and plants. His fieldwork has taken him to such countries as Belize, Brazil, China, Egypt, Honduras, Peru, Thailand and, most recently, the Federated States of Micronesia. In his expeditions, he works with indigenous cultures to document their knowledge of local plants and to study the environmental effects of their traditional practices.

In announcing the AAAS award earlier this year, the organization particularly noted Balick’s efforts in “preserving traditional knowledge and respect for the values of local peoples and his support for the development of scientific institutions in areas of the world where they are needed most.”

Much of Balick’s work focuses on the search for plants with medicinal properties. Although a large number of traditional remedies and prescription drugs contain substances derived from plants, only a few hundred wild species are generally used, and the medicinal potential of most species has not yet been identified.

Balick’s current, active research in Micronesia involves a comprehensive survey of native plants with healing properties. The project is similar to one he conducted for 15 years in Belize, resulting in the book Rain Forest Remedies: 100 Healing Herbs of Belize, which he coauthored with Rosita Arvigo. The book is designed to be used by teachers, students, traditional healers and researchers, and a portion of its sales is used to support healers and ecosystem preservation in the rain forests of Central America.

The 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship will support Balick’s work in producing a first draft of his comprehensive manuscript on the ethnobotany of Pohnpei, which he expects to complete next year for publication in 2007. Pohnpei, one of the Caroline Islands of Micronesia in the western Pacific, is rich in biodiversity of habitat and in rare and endemic species of plants and animals.

Interested in plants since childhood, Balick grew up in the Wilmington, Del., suburbs and attended Brandywine High School, where he ran the school’s greenhouse in his senior year. He came to UD to study in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and, he says, found mentors and academic programs that gave him “an excellent educational foundation that I could build on to pursue my multidisciplinary interests.”

A key mentor was Richard W. Lighty, coordinator of the University’s Longwood Program and a horticulture professor in the agriculture college from 1967-83. Now retired, Lighty says he has kept in touch with Balick and has followed his many accomplishments through the years.

When Balick enrolled at UD, Lighty served as his adviser. “Even at that time, Mike thought outside the box,” Lighty says. “He had an easygoing manner, but he would always question why things happened, why they worked the way they did. I saw enormous promise in him.”

As an undergraduate, Balick spent a year abroad at Tel Aviv University, studying biology and humanities and conducting ethnobotanical and botanical fieldwork to gain firsthand knowledge of the use of plants by Israeli and Palestinian groups in the region. After graduating in 1975, with honors in agriculture and plant science, he worked in Costa Rica for a year.

Balick earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in biology from Harvard University, working under the noted ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes. In 1980, he joined The New York Botanical Garden, where he now holds the positions of vice president and chairperson of research and training. He also serves as director and philecology curator of the garden’s Institute of Economic Botany, which he cofounded in 1981. The word “philecology” was coined to refer to a love of the environment.

From 1986-96, Balick helped lead The New York Botanical Garden’s collaboration with the National Cancer Institute to survey Latin America and the Caribbean for plants that might be useful in treating cancer and AIDS.

“Over the past 30 years, Dr. Balick has developed a shared vision of research with his collaborators in many different parts of the world, working with them to gather essential financial and intellectual resources,” Sherburne Abbott, AAAS chief international officer, says. “He has been a leader in revitalizing the little-known field of ethnobotany.”

In all his research activities,  Balick says, “Our model is one of full partnership, ensuring local interest and benefits that will last far beyond the lifetime of the immediate project.”

Ethnobotany remains a relatively small scientific specialty. Balick says the field has probably only a few hundred active practitioners around the world but that both popular and scientific interest in the discipline is growing, and new career opportunities are developing.

“It’s an exciting time to be an ethnobotanist, and I would hope to see the growth continue substantially,” he says. “How humans relate to the natural environment and how they utilize it are certainly very important topics at this critical point in time.”