Board of Directors

Dany Ramos Cisneros

President

Dany's passion and enthusiasm for Bamboo has and continues to extend to further studies of Bamboo and plant Botany, Taxonomy, Phenology, Phelogeny, Bamboo and plant Systematics, Identification methods, propagation, Nursery and greenhouse production and micro propagation. In addition to Art and Culture of Bambúes. Dany is currently engaged in teaching Bamboo uses, management, propagation and Science in San Diego Zoo arenas; such as Research, Botanical tours, presentations as well as representative for BOTA(Bambúes of the Américas); ABS (American Bamboo Society) and AZH (Association of Zoological Horticulturist) , and San Diego Zoo Global; Dany is currently working as a consultant with UCR on a Department of Defense grant involving Bamboo technology and has written the Bamboo maintenance and management manual for the San Diego Zoo Global Horticulture Department. He is also involved in the science and implementations of Bamboo plant nutritional improvements and procedures that are intended to promote and enhance the Bamboo plants abilities to become positively and consistently palatable for The SDZG Giant Panda and Red Panda. Dany is currently the Liaison to San Diego Zoo Global, AZH, ABS So Cal and ABS National, FOR; BOTA (Bambues Of The Américas ). Current projects involve international travels and Research with BOTA on importation processes of Mexican, Central American, South American and African Bambúes.

Gordon Coop

Vice President

Gordon Coop is a Real Estate Broker that specializes in commercial real estate for over thirty years. He is a bamboo hobbyist, who has been growing exotic bamboo species on his half acre in Temecula California for over a decade. He is an experienced, self-taught machinist, who has an interest in the design and fabrication of bamboo harvesting tools, as well as bamboo metal art.  He has participated as a vendor and donor in the Southern California Bamboo Society Chapter’s bamboo sales. Recently, he has been a frequent volunteer at the Garden of Hope, a community garden on the Duarte campus of City of Hope, and at the Dia Dang Monastery in Bonsall city of San Diego California. His other pursuits include trail building for hiking and mountain biking in his local community. He hopes to expand the chapter’s community outreach and educate on the public on the benefits of bamboo.

Roy Wiersma

Treasurer

A lifelong plant fanatic whose threefold present research is:

1. Finding the rest of the“lost” Luther Burbank plant hybrids,    2. Cloning champion SoCal trees,                                              3. Determining ways to bring dead plant material back to life (cf. Paracelsus, Scripture, etc.).
Academic background: B.S. Horticulture Cal Poly Pomona 1994. Research included a study of bamboo tissue-cultured branchlet nodes in Phyllostachys and Bambusa. Ph.D. Botany UC Riverside 1997. Research included work on bamboo cytogenetics in Phyllostachys nigra ‘Punctata’ and a study of progeny competition based on spikelet position of barb goatgrass (Aegilops triuncialis). Ph.D. Plant Molecular Biology UC Davis + UC Irvine 2004. Research included a host range study of Agrobacterium tumefaciens and work on bioluminescent plants using Vibrio fischeri lux genes (UC Davis). Work at Irvine included looking at the splicing patterns of the exons of the ankyrin gene and antisense mutants based on PCR amplification. Additional research was the study of NMD in tobacco BY-2 cells using Phytochrome A gene and its mutants (PhyA101. PhyA102, PhyA103). RT-PCR products were studied for RNA degradation
products by stopping transcription with Actinomycin D.