Edgar M. Medina Tovar, a native of Bogotá, Colombia, is currently a PhD student in the Department of Biology at Duke University. In Dr. Nicolas E. Buchler’s lab, Edgar studies the zoosporic fungus Spizellomyces, to develop this non-model organism into a genetically tractable system. The zoosporic fungi comprise a group of fungal lineages that have…

Teeratas ‘Tas’ Kijpornyongpan is a PhD student from Bangkok, Thailand, where he completed his undergraduate degree. Tas plans to return to Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, his alma mater, as faculty after he completes his PhD at Purdue University. His primary interests are to explore fungal biodiversity in Thailand, as well as to teach and inspire…

Jorge Ronny Díaz-Valderrama grew up in the small, but historically important city of Cajamarca, Peru, in the Northern Highlands. He is currently a PhD student at Dr. M. Catherine Aime’s lab at the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University. Jorge describes his research as a kind of “enemy-friend” relationship between Moniliophthora roreri and…

Andrew Loyd is originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is a PhD candidate at the University of Florida in Gainesville in the labs of Drs. Jason Smith and Brantlee Richter. He is the recipient of a 2017 MSA Clark T. Rogerson Award. Andrew’s research project focuses on the taxonomy, biology and physiology of the laccate…

Washington native Korena Mafune is a PhD student at the University of Washington in Drs. Daniel and Kristiina Vogt’s lab. Korena researches in the Olympic Penninsula in Washington where she focuses on elucidating the role of adventitious roots and their fungal partners in canopy soils of old-growth Acer macrophyllum (big leaf maple). In these temperate…

A native of Montreal, Emile Gluck-Thaler is a PhD candidate at The Ohio State University in Dr. Jason C. Slot’s lab. Emile is interested in the genetics of fungal ecology. Fungal lifestyles are notoriously difficult to pin down, and often, a single species will be associated with multiple ecological roles. For example, some fungi can…

Lindsey Becker grew up in North Carolina, where she continues to reside. Lindsey is a Master’s student in Dr. Marc Cubeta’s lab at North Carolina State University where she works on a plant growth promoting fungus in a floriculture system. Lindsey is analyzing foliage area, plant tissue nutrient composition, biomass, and flower counts of Calibrachoa…

Abigail Courtney grew up just outside of Manhattan in New York. She moved to New Jersey for her undergraduate education, where she got her B.S. in bioinformatics from Ramapo College of New Jersey. While there, she worked on an undergraduate research project titled Responses of growth, antioxidants and gene expression in smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora)…

Laura Tipton is at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa in Nicole Hynson’s lab where she is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Microbiome of the Built Environment Postdoctoral Fellow. She works on the longest aerobiota study and one of the longest microbial time-course studies known, looking at fungi captured in air filters over a 13-year…

J. Alejandro Rojas is currently a post-doctoral research scientist working with Rytas Vilaglays at Duke University. His postdoctoral research is focused on plant-fungal interactions, with a specific focus on symbiotic fungi associated with the Populus rhizosphere. The aim is to understand the functional role, diversity, and population structure of dominant fungal species in this system…