News and Activities
April 30, 2024
Purdue University Herbaria featured in Purdue Alumnus magazine
Thanks in part to my letter to The Exponent editor in 2023, the Purdue Alumnus sought to recognize the Herbaria in a beautifully composed story for their Spring 2024 edition. Come for the photographs of fungi, stay for the fascinating histories of these wonderful collections.
Thanks to author Kat Braz (@skatbraz) and photographer Charles Jischke (@charlesjischke) for making the Herbaria sound and look so good!
February 16, 2024
West Virginia University - Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
Culturing chytrids: an appreciation of biodiversity in the early diverging fungi
I had the honor to visit the lab of Dr. Matthew Kasson at the West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV, serving as a consultant on the isolation of zoosporic eufungi from arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). The work is being conducted by graduate student Cameron Wilson via support from a 2023 SPUN (Society for the Protection of Underground Networks) Underground Explorers grant. While there, I gave a presentation, on the history and our current understanding of the Chytridiomycota and other zoosporic fungi, to a fervent group of mycologists and interested researchers.
Could AMF be an unexamined host for parasitic zoosporic eufungi?
Stay tuned to find out!
February 14, 2024
Recipient of Purdue University College of Agriculture Professional Development Grant
I’m honored to have been awarded a College of Agriculture Professional Development Grant. This award will aid in my travel to the 2024 Mycological Society of America Annual Meeting, in Markham, Ontario, Canada, during which I will be leading a symposium on the early diverging fungi, “Stepping out of the Dikarya shadow: recent advances in basal fungal lineages”. Thank you, Purdue College of Ag!
January 17, 2024
Department of Biological Sciences
Purdue, Pucciniales, and Phycomycetes: a collection of mycological histories
I was asked to speak to the Purdue University Department of Biological Sciences during the inaugural weekly presentation of their 2024 EcoLunch program. I spoke on the history of the Purdue University Herbaria, including the great caper of specimens by Joseph C. Arthur, and perhaps the most prominent mycologist from the Department, Dr. John S. Karling. Karling was a the Department Chair from 1948-1958, a Chicago White Sox reject, a inadvertent rediscoverer of Maya cities, a vocal rival of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and is the namesake of the John S. Karling Lecture, the keynote presentation at each Mycological Society of America Annual Meeting since Karling’s passing in 1995. Click here for more on John S. Karling.
October 27, 2023
Department of Forestry and Natural Resources
Fall Into Nature Event
I joined this year’s Fall Into Nature, hosted by the Purdue University Department of Forestry and Natural Resources. Along with my presenting of the Herbaria to the public, there were booths from organizations like the taxidermy club and Indiana bird watchers, guided tours of the Purdue Horticulture Park, and free meals to each visitor thanks to the Guac Box food truck.
October 20, 2023
Baylor University - Department of Biology
Mycological misconceptions and biodiversity of the early diverging fungi
I was happy to join Dr. Katelyn McKindles, former postdoctoral colleague at the University of Michigan Timothy Y. James Lab, for a discussion of the early diverging fungi, their history, and recent advances, during my visit to Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Thanks, Katelyn!
October 18, 2023
Selected for MSA Symposium
I’m proud to have had my symposium proposal “Stepping out of the Dikarya shadow: recent advances in basal fungal lineages”, selected for inclusion at the Mycological Society of America Annual Meeting in Markham, Ontario, Canada. Speakers will include Drs. Timothy Y. James, Katelyn McKindles, Yan Wang, Yousuke Degawa, and Kensuke Seto.
August 14, 2023
Department of Biological Sciences
PokéBio: exploring biology through pocket monsters
The Herbaria was pleased to host Simiflora, a creature in the PokéBio event, sponsored by Dr. Ximena Bernal.
From the PokéBio website:
”This exhibit took place in the early fall semester 2023 across Purdue's campus and was developed by students from a class taught at the John Martinson Honors College at Purdue University in the spring semester of 2023. This course, ‘PokéBio: Exploring Biology through pocket monsters’, used Pokémon to teach students about ecology, evolution, and conservation biology. In this student-led project, inspiration from species that are endangered in the Midwest fueled the creation of unique, artistic, and playful pocket monsters.”