Dear MSA Members,
We are sending out a revised version of Inoculum to include photos intended for publication with the article "Gleno – the Mushroom Capital of Timor-Leste". Please see full article with attached photographs in this version.
Thank you,
Inoculum Editorial Team
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The Mycological Society of America |
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The MSA Annual Meeting, "Elevating Mycology", is scheduled for Saturday, 29th July to Thursday, 3rd of August, at Little America Hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona. Abstract submission opens February 15. Watch the MSA website for details and registration to open in early March. The logo for the meeting is forthcoming, to be designed by Ri Corwin, and will soon appear on the meeting website. A diverse and exciting set of symposia are planned for each afternoon.
Important dates to consider when planning your travel:
MSA Council Meeting: Saturday, July 29th
MSA Annual Foray: Sunday, July 30th at the Arizona Snowbowl
Presidential Address: Monday, July 31st
Karling Lecture: Tuesday, August 1st
Abstract submissions are now open! The deadline to submit your abstract is Friday, March 31st. Click the button below to submit your abstract today.
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Hello MSA Members,
Spring has sprung here in Clemson, South Carolina. Temperatures are warming, and we are getting ready for morel season, hoping for a balance of gentle rains and frost-free nights (SC morels require a lot of optimism). As we move towards spring and the Executive Council’s mid-term meeting, I wanted to share some MSA activities and accomplishments.
The MSA 2023 Annual Meeting: Elevating Mycology is July 30 to August 2, 2023 in Flagstaff, Arizona. Abstract submission is activated! You should have received a message from MSA with a link. If not, make sure your membership is renewed so you do not miss out on important announcements! Abstracts, registration, program details, and related information will be posted on the meeting website, so check back often: https://msafungi.org/2023-msa-annual-meeting-elevating-mycology/
The MSA Program Committee chair, along with The Reese Group (TRG) and various committees, are working hard to plan a safe and inclusive conference. A big thank you to Jason Slot, Progam Committee Chair, as well as the rest of the Program Committee, for all of their hard work. We are fortunate to have an excellent local group, with Don Natvig as the Local Arrangements person, as well as Kitty Gehring (Foray Coordinator), Bridget Barker, and Nancy Johnson of Northern Arizona University, all of whom have been providing their local wisdom. The meeting program will have a schedule and format that is traditional of in-person MSA meetings. A virtual component will also be available; we are planning to stream key sessions scheduled in one dedicated venue. This format is one that has been discussed and adopted since our virtual meeting in 2020; it allows a virtual component for those unable to attend the meeting while keeping costs down. Check out the article in this issue that Past-President Betsy Arnold, an Arizona native, wrote, which includes the highlights of Flagstaff!
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MSA Logo and Branding: Discussions about the need to update the MSA logo have been ongoing for years. The current logo is a petri dish, which is not recognizable to many members and does not represent all of our members. A strong logo and brand can help the Society grow, retain members, and complete its mission. An ad hoc committee is working with experts, facilitated by TRG, to do this properly and generate an effective logo and branding effort.
- SPORES: The SPORES (Society Prioritizes Our Recruitment of Every Scholar) program, an initiative to increase diversity through mentorship, will have a pilot run this year. This innovative program, proposed by the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, will engage diverse and underrepresented undergraduate students with an interest in mycology. Students will attend the 2023 annual meeting in a supportive environment, with a mentor, promoting a sense of belonging in the Society with the goal of retaining them as long-term mycologists and MSA members.
- Junior Mycologist Badge: The Education Committee drafted a foundation for a Junior Mycologist Badge - an exciting means of engaging children’s interest in fungi. This is a template that could be adopted by the Girls Scouts of America, Scouts BSA, and similar programs.
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Mycologia: Our journal continues to flourish thanks to stewardship from the Managing Editor and Advisory Board. We welcomed two new Executive Editors, Marin Brewer and Michael Freitag, a new Review Editor, Priscila Chaverri, and four new Associate Editors, Catalina Salgado-Salazar, Geoffrey Zhan, Kabir Peay, Scott Baker. Thank you all for your contributions.
- Finances: Despite taking a hit due to inflation and market volatility, MSA’s investment accounts are still in good standing to fulfill upcoming programmed expenditures. Thank you to the Finance Committee as well as David Middleton, Chief Investment Officer, and Heather Hallen-Adams, Treasurer, for allowing us to remain confident in our fiscal stability.
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Committees: MSA committee appointments are filled and the roster is posted on the MSA website. Appointments to ad hoc, rotating, and standing committees were selected considering diversity and gender balance. Thank you all who generously serve MSA!
A goal of mine is to expand MSA’s teaching materials. I know this has been a challenge for years, despite our best intentions. One avenue is to find a way for this to be a peer-reviewed process, so submitting materials is advantageous for all. I am looking into options, although, realistically, this will extend beyond the rest of my term as president.
For the second half of my term, I am looking forward to moving these ongoing activities forward. I am incredibly appreciative of all that members do to serve in various ways, and I am grateful to be serving as your President.
One final comment: Please remember to renew your membership! Please consider the new gift membership category, as a means to engage a new member or pay for a student or colleague.
Respectfully submitted,
Julia Kerrigan
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Executive Vice President's Report |
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Happy New Year, MSA colleagues! Although many of us are still experiencing the hazy shade of winter, preparations for the Annual Meeting in sunny Flagstaff, Arizona, have begun. See the Annual Meeting section below for more information.
Council Business: The Executive Council met over Zoom on December 14, 2022, for the fall quarterly meeting, and February 25, 2023, for the midyear meeting. Minutes of these meetings are (or soon will be) available on our website at https://msafungi.org/msa-meeting-minutes-and-reports/. The Council conducted eight official email polls since my October column. A request to recommend Joseph Ammirati for Emeritus status was approved, as were the nominations of Marin Brewer and Michael Freitag as Executive Editors of Mycologia, and Catalina Salgado-Salazar, Geoffrey Zhan, Kabir Peay, and Scott Baker as Associate Editors. Council also provided Vice President James feedback on two location options for the 2025 MSA Annual Meeting.
Member Deaths: We lost two very active MSA members recently. Elizabeth Feliciano passed away shortly before the 2022 MSA Annual Meeting (June 16, 2022), and Past President Tom Volk passed away just after Thanksgiving (November 28, 2022). They are and will continue to be missed.
New Members: I would like to warmly welcome the following new members who have joined MSA since my October column. Their membership will be formally approved at the Flagstaff, Arizona, 2023 Annual Business Meeting.
Cole Grannan, Jerod Thomas, Joseph Gentili, Posy Busby, Daniel Weinreb, Astrid Altamirano, Kimberly Syring, Elissa Fisher, Jessica Brown, Robert Volpe, Cecelia Stokes, Florence Okafor, Carrie LaChance, Brian Deis, Tyler Crawford, John Matuszak, Jessycah Andersen, Liz Beal, Hillary Mehl, Alexandra Dalaya, Alicia Banwell, Philip McIntosh, James Caster, Elizabeth Hooks, Marc Friedman, Benjamin McDonald, Mira Polishook, Mary Childress, Carolyn Zhao, Thiago Kossmann Cardoso, Drew Hansen, Austen Miller, Geoffrey Benson, Luke Amerine, Kate Howe, Lily Childs, Forrest Walker, Ciaran Jones, Matthew Morales, Sally Mustacchia, Sara Wheeler, Maddie Hincher, Liam Cleary, and Monica Aghimien.
2023 Membership: New to the Society this year is a Gift Membership (https://msafungi.org/msa-gift-membership-2/), making it easier than ever to gift an MSA membership. For those who have already renewed your MSA membership, thank you! Your continued support is critical to the future of our Society. If you still need to renew, don’t delay any longer; click here now: https://msafungi.org/membership/. Committed MSA members are encouraged to select an auto-renew or multiyear membership option to reduce unintended lapses in membership. These options also ensure a $10 early renewal discount on next year’s membership!
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REMINDER - MSA Directory Update: Please check your profile information in the MSA Directory (address, phone, and email) to make sure it is current. MSA uses this information to provide timely information about awards, elections, meetings, and news. To review your information, visit (https://msafungi.org/membership/). Contact our MSA Membership Coordinator, Cori VanGalder (msafungi@reesgroupinc.com), if you need assistance.
Annual Meeting: The 2023 Annual Meeting will be held at Little America in Flagstaff, Arizona, July 29-August 3. Conference registration and hotel reservations will open in early March. MSA has a limited room block, so please register and book as soon as possible. Abstracts for oral and poster presentations are tentatively due March 31. Please refer to the MSA Annual Meeting webpage for meeting updates (https://msafungi.org/2023-msa-annual-meeting-elevating-mycology/).
Please feel free to contact me about MSA business or any questions you have about the Society. And don’t forget to recommend MSA to your amateur and professional colleagues, particularly students. Remember, a Gift Membership (https://msafungi.org/msa-gift-membership-2/) option is now available!
Respectfully submitted,
MSA Executive Vice President
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Elizabeth N. Feliciano
Elizabeth Noemi Feliciano (Liz or E), 32, a member of MSA student section and secretary of the DEI committee, passed away in June 2022. Elizabeth grew up in Gary, Indiana. As an undergraduate she attended Indiana University Bloomington and graduated in 2013 with a double-major in Biology and East Asian Languages, including a concentration in Mandarin Chinese. She became fluent in Mandarin and spent one year in Kunming, China, where she worked as an environmental and health research organization. After traveling in Asia, Elizabeth returned to the United States where she worked for one year in the pharmaceutical industry and another year as an instructor in English for foreign students at the Massachusetts International Academy.
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Alan D. Parker
The mycological world recently lost a dedicated mycologist and exceptional teacher of mycology, in the person of Dr. Alan D. Parker, on August 23, 2022. The son of Bert Lee Parker and Geraldine Agnes (Ryan) Parker, he was born September 21, 1945 in Wellsville, NY. He spent his first 12 years about ten miles down the road in Bolivar, enjoying life exploring the woods and hills of the northern Alleghany Plateau. He loved hiking and hunting the hills and forests of that region before being transplanted to the agricultural flatlands of Lawrenceville, IL, due to his father’s job transfer. He never developed a love for the “corn flats” but there he continued and completed his education through high school in 1963.
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Tom Volk
Thomas J. Volk was born January 28, 1959, in Girard, Ohio, and died November 28, 2022, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. His PhD from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a postdoc (both with Tom Leonard), a second postdoc at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Madison (with Hal Burdsall), and a professorship at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, brought him true professional status as a mycologist. He was a popular professional at mushroom forays where he led many avid amateurs to learn more about fungi.
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MSA Inoculum Educator Spotlight November 2023
Subject: Marin Brewer
Interviewed by a member of the MSA Education Committee
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Fruits of the Forest. A Field Guide to Pacific Northwest Edible Mushrooms
Author: Daniel Winkler
Submitted by: Fred Rhoades
Those of us who enjoy teaching about and consuming mushrooms will appreciate this book. We all know that the first question most non-mushroom experts will ask about a mushroom is “is it edible?” Here is a resource that will help both the novice mushroomer as well as one with some knowledge to answer that question. In addition, its organization and discussions may very well lead the want-to-be mushroom consumer to learn about and be concerned with more than just eating mushrooms.
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Wild Mushrooming, A Guide for Foragers
Author: Alison Pouliot & Tom May
Submitted by: Britt A. Bunyard
Alison Pouliot is an ecologist and environmental photographer with a focus on fungi. She is active in Australian and international fungal conservation and her writing and images appear in both academic and popular literature. Alison’s fungus forays, which she conducts across both hemispheres, attract a range of people from foragers and philosophers to mycologists—both academic and “amateur.” She has even made it to North America where I met her on the West Coast. I thoroughly enjoyed her previous book, The Allure of Fungi - review in FUNGI 12[1]; 2019, which discusses all aspects of fungi, including physiology and ecology, and poses fundamental questions about human-fungus liaisons. That book also features many fascinating and little-known species that frequently fail to get mention in other books on the topic.
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Newly Published and Upcoming Books to Watch For
Submitted by: Amy Rossman
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Workshop Report: 2022 Advanced Study Institute on Invasions and Evolution
By: Rytas Vilgalys, Anne Pringle, Jason Hoeksema, and Steve Brewer
An NSF-sponsored workshop titled, “Advanced Study Institute on Invasions and Evolution”, was held recently in South Africa with a focus on evolutionary and phylogenomic consequences of plant-fungal invasions. The workshop was organized by Jason Hoeksema and Stephen Brewer (from the Univ. Mississippi) together with MSA past-president Anne Pringle (Univ. Wisconsin), and co-hosted by Brenda Wingfield, Mike Wingfield, Irene Barnes, and Bernard Slippers of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) located at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
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North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Highlight Fungi at Darwin Day
By: Marc Cubeta
Fungi were the focus of Darwin Day 2022 (https://naturalsciences.org/calendar/darwin-days/) created by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS) in Raleigh. Darwin Day has been held annually by NCMNS as a day-long event in mid-November since 2017 with the purpose of providing the public with an opportunity to learn about Charles Darwin and how his theories on evolution and natural selection have contributed to our understanding of species diversity. Employees, researchers, science educators, and students from the NCMNS, academic institutions, government and not-for-profit agencies, local farms, and community and youth organizations joined forces on November 12 for Darwin Day 2022 to conduct educational outreach activities, exhibits, and presentations on various aspects of evolution for visitors.
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Flagstaff: Site of Our 2023 MSA Annual Meeting
By: A. Elizabeth (Betsy) Arnold
An old story in MSA holds that no one knew how Bob Gilbertson ( https://www.gilbertsonherbarium.net/) flourished as a mycologist in Arizona, which is more known for cacti, sunshine, and dry weather than many of the hotspots of fungal diversity we typically recognize. His secret, in part? The spectacular mountains of Arizona – including the highlands that surround the site of our 2023 MSA Annual Meeting in Flagstaff – where the confluence of diverse biotic communities fosters a tremendously diverse array of fungi.
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On William H. Weston of MSA’s Teaching Award – Words From an Expert
By: Donald H. Pfister
The MSA Teaching Award honors William H. (Cap) Weston, Jr. (1890-1978), long-time professor of cryptogamic botany at Harvard University. He was known for his dedicated and lively instruction and for teaching,particularly through a popular lecture called “How to Give a Scientific Paper,” a lecture principally instructing the audience about how not to give an oral presentation. He trained 54 graduate students in topics mycological and phycological. As one in a series of the introductory biology courses, he lectured on cryptogamic botany. Recently I was reminded of Weston’s dedication to excellence in teaching when I found, among my reprint collection, a tattered copy of his paper, Lower Plants and Higher Education, published in 1941 (The American Biology Teacher 3: 189-195). Inscribed to F. K. Sparrow, “One-time Austin Teaching Fellow, now my colleague in the art of teaching,” it is a special document representing a particular time in the mycological world and in the state of the world. The journal is available online and I recommended it both for a study in style and for its helpful content. I found the article inspiring. Reading it gave me a new appreciation of the honor the Society bestows with William H. Weston, Jr. Excellence in Teaching Award.
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Gleno – the Mushroom Capital of Timor-Leste
Mushroom Spawn Production in Timor-Leste
By: Van T. Cotter
Edible mushroom production in Timor-Leste is centered in Gleno and consisted of one kind, the white oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus). During October and November 2022, I had the opportunity to serve as a Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) volunteer in Gleno with the highly motivated and hardworking staff of JAFEM (Joventude Agricultura Floresta Emprezarial) helping them improve their mushroom spawn production facilities and methods. Faced with very limited local resources, they had already developed a creative spawn production system which met the challenge of avoiding strain degeneration; thus, there was a solid foundation upon which the F2F training could build.
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ChatGPT: Implications for Fungal Research and Teaching
By: Emily Trudeau, Faezeh Aliabadi, Lydia Petersons, Vivian Miao, and Mary Berbee
Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (ChatGPT) is a recently developed language prediction model that seems to have an uncanny ability to correctly interpret human-language requests and then generate text to fulfill your desires. It can answer a question, edit or correct text, write a poem, or generate a 200-word essay on a topic of your choice, complete with three references formatted according to the APA 7 Style guide. This essay began in a lab meeting where we explored ChatGPT’s potential for good and evil as we now confront it in our professional lives.
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Share Your Love of Fungi!
Be an active part of the fungal community! If you have a photo of an experiment, specimen, or activity that is fungal related, please share it with the MSA community on social media. You may also submit notices about newly released fungal articles, but we require that the DOI be added. Simply follow this link and complete the submission form (https://forms.gle/xQeGHks8xcepL5Lr9).
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MSA Student Members Interested in Communication |
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Demystifying Hebeloma
By: Peter Bartlett, Henry Beker, and Ursula Eberhardt
https://hebeloma.org/ is live! Its launch was recently announced in IMA Fungus (Bartlett et al. [2022] 13:18). This dynamic website is underpinned by a database of almost 10,000 Hebeloma collections that have been amassed over the past 20-plus years covering over 135 species worldwide, and includes almost all type collections. The website provides a direct public “view” into the database. The website provides full species descriptions, information on every Hebeloma name ever published, tools for species comparisons, species parameters, species geography and habitats, as well as an AI machine, learning-based species identifier. Most importantly it is all, even the species identifier, automatically updated as new information becomes available.
Most database collections have been identified to species level using both molecular and morphological data in addition to locality, host, and habitat information. Almost all collections have an associated ITS sequence and often sequences from several distinct genetic markers. The morphological descriptions have been parametrized and micro-morphological characters are available for about one-third of the collections.
This analytic tool, alongside phylogenetic analysis, has enabled a better understanding of a genus that has hitherto been described as “difficult”. This work may be considered as a proof of concept that a structured and methodical approach to morphology can advance species recognition even in difficult groups.
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Lost Women of Science (LWoS) Shorts |
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Episode Description: In 1909, the Mayor of Tokyo sent a gift of 2,000 prized cherry trees to Washington, D.C. But the iconic blossoms enjoyed each spring along the Tidal Basin are not from those trees. That’s because Flora Patterson, who was the Mycologist in Charge at the USDA, recognized the original saplings were infected, and the shipment was burned on the National Mall. In this episode, assistant producer Hilda Gitchell explores Flora’s lasting impact on the field of mycology, starting with a blight that killed off the American chestnut trees, and how she helped make the USDA’s National Fungus Collection the largest in the world. Click the thumbnail below to view.
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Learn about the Fungi up North!
We are excited to invite you to the 4th Annual CanFunNet meeting, where mycologists from Canada and all around the world will share their latest research and network in a three-day virtual conference (May 31 – June 2, 2023). We encourage everybody, especially students, to participate in this meeting that will showcase cutting-edge international mycological research with a distinctly Canadian angle.
The Canadian Fungal Research Network (CanFunNet) was established in 2019 to promote fungal research in Canada by facilitating dialogue among scientists working across diverse sub-disciplines and institutions. Our yearly conference has had three very successful editions, hosted by the University of Guelph (2020), Western Ontario University (2021), and the University of Alberta (2022). Check our website for our past programs!
In 2023 CanFunNet comes to the Canadian Maritimes for a virtual meeting hosted by Acadia University (Wolfville, Nova Scotia) and the New Brunswick Museum (Saint John, New Brunswick). Our program will feature an exciting lineup of plenary talks and invited sessions under the theme, “Fungi from Coast to Coast”. Following in the footsteps of previous editions, we will continue to bring together all topics within mycology during three fungi-packed days; including ecology, plant pathology, medical mycology, taxonomy, conservation, citizen-science and many more! Hard to believe, eh?
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World Health Organization (WHO) Fungal Priority Pathogens List to Guide Research, Development, and Public Health Action
The WHO fungal priority pathogens list (WHO FPPL) is the first global effort to systematically prioritize fungal pathogens, considering their unmet research and development (R&D) needs and perceived public health importance. The WHO FPPL aims to focus and drive further research and policy interventions to strengthen the global response to fungal infections and antifungal resistance. The WHO FPPL list is divided into three categories: critical, high, and medium priority. The report presents these categories and proposes actions and strategies for policymakers, public health professionals, and other stakeholders, targeted at improving the overall response to these priority fungal pathogens including preventing the development of antimicrobial resistance. Three primary areas for action are proposed, focusing on: (1) strengthening laboratory capacity and surveillance; (2) sustainable investments in research, development, innovation, and (3) public health interventions.
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Remember to enable emails from msafungi@reesgroupinc.com for continued MSA updates.
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It's time to renew your membership for 2023! Access your MSA membership profile here!
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Digital issues of Mycologia are now accessed on the MSA website, not at Taylor and Francis. You will need your log in information. See web page for troubleshooting steps.
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Thank you to all who have donated to MSA funds since our last publication of Inoculum!
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MSA continues to be immensely appreciative of all of the generous donors that allow the Society to continue to fund research and travel through various endowment funds. If you're interested in supporting any of these funds, there are multiple ways you can donate!
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Use MSA's secure donation portal (you will be redirected to Wild Apricot, the payment processing platform for MSA)
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Donate while renewing your membership
- Call the MSA Membership Coordinator with your donation information at (608) 441-1060 ext. 162
- Mail a check, paid to the order of The Mycological Society of America to:
The Mycological Society of America
2424 American Lane
Madison, WI 53704
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We Want to See Your Fungal Photos! |
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Your fungal photo could be featured as the header for the next issue of Inoculum!
MSA is calling for your photos! Chosen photos will appear in future issues of Inoculum. Submit your photos along with your name and any text you'd like to accompany the image (optional) using the button below!
The Inoculum header photo for February 2023 is an Amanita hallingiana nom. prov. photographed in Michoacán, México, submitted by Alan Rockefeller
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The Mycological Society of America | (608) 441-1060 | 2424 American Ln. Madison, WI, 53704 | MSAfungi.org
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