Professional Career
My first job was in botany. I attended the Ir. W. van den Broek Institute in Amsterdam. I became a lab technician with a specialty in botany. While living in the Netherlands I became involved in the orchid business via my relatives. I learned how to clone cymbidium orchids (when I was a teenager) and had my own lab for several years. I was self-employed part-time and worked for a carnation grower in nearby Aalsmeer part-time.
After moving to the United States in 1986 I decided on a change in career and returned to school. I earned my B.S., M.A. and Ph.D. in Santa Barbara, California. My dissertation was in low dimensional topology. I have been a faculty member at Saint Louis University since 1998.
Trivia
A fun fact is that an orchid was named after me. It's called: Anneke Bart 'Grand Opening' (The cross was: Rio Rita x Solana Beach.) It was registered in 1983 by Andy Easton of Geyserland Orchids in New Zealand. It received a Silver Award from the Cymbidium Society of America. It got the variety name’ Grand Opening’ because a group of the plants was used for the opening of the Fleur Orchid Gardens in Rotorua in New Zealand.
