Alison (Fox) Stocker was an alien invader of Florida arriving from Great Britain in 1987 after completing her undergraduate program at the University of Liverpool and receiving a Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow, both degrees in Botany.  She started at the University of Florida as a post-doctoral associate working with Dr. Bill Haller on aquatic plant biology and control, and evolved into an Associate Professor conducting research on invasive plants in aquatic, wetland, and terrestrial habitats in Florida and the US Virgin Islands.  She taught undergraduate and graduate courses on invasive species, ecology of weeds, and aquatic plants, and supervised several graduate students.  Alison also had an extension appointment with a focus on developing and implementing the IFAS Assessment of Non-Native Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas https://assessment.ifas.ufl.edu/ which is still in use at the University of Florida and beyond.

Alison served as President of the Aquatic Plant Management Society in 1997-1998, as well as a Past Chair of the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council.  She also served on the Board of Directors of the Florida Aquatic Plant Management Society and the Weed Science Society of America.  Along with her husband, Randall, Alison retired at the end of 2007 and since then they have been cruising on their sailboat from Nova Scotia to Jamaica and Panama, through the Panama Canal to the Galapagos Islands, Hawaii, and Alaska.  Their next major passages will be sailing to Mexico and through the islands of the South Pacific.