Faces of UNC Asheville

David Clarke

David Clarke, who joined the UNC Asheville faculty in 2000, is Associate Professor of Biology. When not teaching, Dr. Clarke catalogs vanishing plants in Guyana and occasionally takes students along for his expeditions. Since the mid-1990s, he has collected more than 12,000 distinct specimens, making more than 20 expeditions to what he calls “the world’s last great tropical wilderness.” One particular species, a passion flower called Dilkea clarkei, was discovered by Clarke and recently named for him.