JOHN AUDUBON EXPLORES FLORIDA

Thomas Peter Bennett is a Florida native on perpetual sabbatical as an independent scholar and poet. A former professor and natural history museum executive, he has published scientific articles and books, as well as poems and collections on topics featured in Florida Sketches: William Baldwin Follows Bartram's Tracks. This book is largely drawn from his research and field explorations along the Bartram Trail in Florida. A graduate of Florida State University (FSU), Bennett earned his PhD in biochemistry from the Rockefeller University and became an assistant professor at Harvard University. He later returned to FSU as a professor and the chair of biological sciences, afterwards serving as the special assistant to the president and acting executive vice president. His museum work began with his appointment as the president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, now the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. After a decade at the Academy, he returned to Florida as a dean, professor, and the director of the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida. Ten years later he became the executive director of the South Florida Museum and retired as an emeritus executive director. While teaching at FSU, Bennett started publishing poetry, attended workshops with Michael Bugeja and others, and studied with Mary Oliver at Bennington College. Bennett's recent poems-inspired by the natural wonders in Florida and Maine-have appeared in, Red Owl, Chebacco, POETALK, The Café Review, Puckerbrush Review, Pegasus Review, and Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, among others, and in various anthologies, such as Goose River Anthology, Cosmos Club Poets Through the Years, and Bay Area Poets Coalition. He is the author of several poetry chapbooks and five poetry books, including Nature, As One Sees It (2003), A Celebration of John and William Bartram: In Philadelphia and Florida (2005), Hike On (2008), and Encore Seasons (2017). In addition to his poetry and scientific works, Bennett has several historical scientific books to his credit: The Legacy: South Florida Museum (2010), The Le Contes: Scientific Family of Woodmanston (2014), and Florida Explored: The Philadelphia Connection in Bartram's Tracks (2019). He is a member of The Explorers Club and the Cosmos Club.