Jacob Steenwyk grew up Pasadena, California, and is currently a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, working with Dr. Antonis Roka! Tell us about your project! My research focuses on the extensive loss of cell-cycle and DNA repair genes in an ancient lineage of bipolar budding yeasts. Which awards do you like to brag about? My…

If you are interested in being featured in a future MSA student and postdoc spotlight, please fill out this form with your information! Madeline Lueck is our student spotlight for the month of November! Madeline grew up in East Bay Area, California, and is currently a graduate student at Washington State University, Tri-Cities, working with…

Gary Olds is currently doing research at the Denver Botanical Gardens with Dr. Andrew Wilson. Tell us about your project! My project, “Applying a Modified Metabarcoding Approach for the Sequencing of Macrofungal Specimens,” explores laboratory techniques in taking the efficiency (time, labor, and cost) of environmental DNA sequencing and applying that to the historically slower…

Magnolia Morelli grew up in Salt Lake City, UT, and is currently doing research at Utah Valley University with Geoffrey Zahn. Tell us about your project! I am currently planning a research trip to Costa Rica to study mycophagy within primates. I will be collecting data at La Selva Biological station over the course of…

Nicole Colón-Carrión grew up in Puerto Rico and is currently doing research at the University of Arizona with Dr. Elizabeth Arnold. Tell us about your project! In my dissertation research I seek to understand how climate changes impact plant-fungal associations, with a focus on two main environments: wild tropical forests and agricultural systems. Specifically, my work…

Terry J Torres Cruz grew up in Costa Rica. She is currently doing research at Penn State-State College with Dr. David Geiser.  Tell us about your project!  My thesis project aims to describe a potential new plant-fungal mimicry system and the potential involvement of insects in this interaction. What awards would you like to brag…

Carolina Piña Páez grew up in Hermosillo, Sonora, México. She is currently doing research on the Madrean Sky Islands of Arizona and Mexico. Her advisor is Joey Spatafora.  Tell us about your project!  My project combines fieldwork and laboratory experiments to unravel past climate change cycles’ effects on Rhizopogon and their hosts (Pinaceae) in the Madrean Sky…

Kirsten Gotting is from Portland, Oregon. She is doing her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her current advisor is Cameron Currie. Tell us about your project! I’m really interested in evolution and diversification, and how symbiosis plays a role in these processes. The system I work on is the fungus-growing ant-microbe symbiosis. More specifically,…

Savannah Gentry grew up in Port Neches (Texas) and Klamath Falls (Oregon). She is currently doing research at Madison, Wisconsin with Anne Pringle. Tell us about your project! I work with fungal pathogens of wildlife and have found that two pathogens responsible for infectious diseases in snakes and lizards (snake fungal disease and yellow fungal…

Alden Dirks is from Coatesville, Pennsylvania. He is currently doing research with Dr. Tim James in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Tell us about your project! Gyromitrin is an acute toxin and potent carcinogen that is found in some mushrooms, particularly false morel mushrooms (Gyromitra spp.). The product of gyromitrin metabolism, monomethylhydrazine, is infamous for also being…