George Ellmore has a passion for biodiversity. Growing up amidst apricot and cherry orchards, from which he had fresh fruit from May until October, one season after the next, it seemed natural for him to become involved in plant biology.
"In California where I grew up, there are crops growing, orchid crops growing, field crops growing... it's a huge field," he said.
But Ellmore - an associate biology professor who has been at Tufts since 1980 - didn't spend all of his childhood in California. Born and raised in Europe, where there were "still many bombed shells of buildings in the major cities of Germany and France," he did not arrive in the United States until he was 11 years old.
"Over the past lifetime, Europeans have lived through hell a couple of times over, and that spawned a genuine appreciation for how exceptional peace and prosperity are," he said. "We children were treated as gifts of joy pointing to a brighter time."
According to Ellmore, moving to the United States was very much an adjustment. "Everything was a transition - the language spoken, the education system, starting middle school, and my own growing sense of pre-teen awareness," he said.
According to Ellmore, growing up in California was "way cool, dude." He explained that life in California is very suburban - "cars, cars, cars," he said. "I'm very happy to have moved to Boston where so much is accessible by walking."
During his teenage years, Ellmore enjoyed making detailed plastic models of airplanes. "I spent time with friends, golfing, earning money by mowing lawns, and occasional forays into agricultural work," he said of his outdoor activities.
Ellmore said that lots of people in the West are involved in plant sciences. His inspiration to become a plant biologist came from spending time outside and being surrounded by biological diversity.
As an undergraduate, Ellmore attended the University of California at Chico. "The university is nestled against the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada, where flowers would just spill out of the hills in March, April and May, much like in Talloires, [France]," he said.
"There are lots of undergraduates there, and biologically, the campus has an outstanding location where diversity is cascading out of the foothills," he continued.
Regardless, Ellmore said that not many of the school's students are interested in laboratory work or research; the school currently maintains its reputation as a party school. "I believe somebody died chugging water about two years ago," he said.
After he finished his undergraduate degree, Ellmore carried out his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He remembers Berkeley as being "much more like Tufts - you are competing against some of the best students in the country," he said. "Everyone was very actively involved in academics."
Yet Berkeley had its own unique and interesting character as well. "Berkeley is crazy," Ellmore said, remembering a man who used to walk around in a rabbit suit. "Imagine someone like that running across Boston Ave!" he laughed. During the final exam for his plant morphology class, "a guy outside the window screamed, 'Hatred is what keeps the world going!' And everyone was laughing - how can you take a final exam like that?" he asked.
After Berkeley, Ellmore proceeded to find a job. "When you are in your 20s, you've only been raised in one place, and there are job opportunities all over the country. Would you want to have a job in the same place you've lived in for the past 15 years? Come on!" he said.
It was this desire to explore that led Ellmore to Boston. "The beauty of Tufts is that through being a professor here, you can go anywhere in the world as part of your work," he said.
"Boston is a wonderful location for world travel. There are just so many fascinating people here - the donors, people interested in our program," he added. "It's just fascinating."
One of Ellmore's favorite Tufts endeavors is the Tufts in Talloires summer program in Talloires, France, where he teaches a course entitled "Flowers of the Alps."
"It is an opportunity that is uniquely Tufts', and it separates us from other universities," he said of the program.
Ellmore has also been the faculty advisor for Tufts Wilderness Orientation since 1990.
"Our interest is making sure that students are as well prepared as possible, but there are always circumstances in which students get lost and local people have to guide them back to the proper trails," he said. "Certainly, you can imagine all the stories that come out of that."
"I like it when Tufts is recognized in other places of the world," added Ellmore,while browsing a journal containing an article on the differences between crowns of trees. "Instead of just saying this is a maple tree, the caption says this is a maple tree growing at Tufts University. Just think about it - this journal is read throughout the world."
