Please join us on Zoom this coming Tuesday, February 15th at 7:30pm for our online Speaker Series.
Patterns of Evolution in the Fossil Record of Fungi
Presented by Ludovic Le Renard
Ludovic was born in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, near Paris. He completed his undergraduate degree in organismal biology and a Masters in interdisciplinary approach to life sciences in France before moving to Vancouver for his PhD. Ludovic completed his PhD at UBC under the supervision of Mary Berbee in 2019, interpreting the fossil record of fly-speck fungi. Now a Postdoctoral Fellow in UBC, he continues to compare the anatomy of live fungi with similar looking fossils to unveil patterns of fungal evolution through geologic time.
Else Vellinga's presentation Fungal Conservation: reasons, venues, and what you and your club can do is now available to MST members to watch on the meetings video page.
Else Vellinga is a mycologist who is interested in naming and classifying mushroom species in California and beyond, especially Parasol mushrooms. She has described 22 species as new for California, and most recently worked at the herbaria at UC Berkeley and SFSU for the Macrofungi and Microfungi Collections Digitization projects. She got her training at the national herbarium in the Netherlands, and her PhD at the university of Leiden. Her main goal is to contribute to the conservation of mushroom species, and for that reason she has proposed several species for the IUCN global database of endangered species. She tries to keep current with the mushroom literature. Else is also an avid knitter and likes to use mushroom dyed yarn for her creations.
Anna Bazzicalupo's presentation Benjamin Woo's Russula Herbarium is now available to MST members to watch on the meetings video page.
Anna was born and grew up in Naples, Italy. She went to university for her undergraduate and master's degrees in Scotland. She then pursued a PhD at the University of British Columbia. After a first postdoc at Montana State University in Bozeman she then returned to UBC for a second postdoc. The work she did for her PhD was on the morphology and biogeography of mushrooms. Her work on the Ben Woo collection has helped understand Russula diversity in the Pacific Northwest.
As mushrooms multiply throughout the city, Sheila Mazur, president of the Mycological Society of Toronto, is leading the charge to unearth their secrets.
One may not think of an urban centre as having much to offer fungi enthusiasts, but Toronto’s natural spaces are a smorgasbord for amateur mycologists.
“An arcane combination of art and science” — as Sheila Mazur puts it — “there is so much mythology, folk wisdom and also really crunchy scientific research that revolves around mushrooms and fungi.” And for the Mycological Society of Toronto (MST) — of which Mazur is president — the 500 species found in Toronto’s backyards, gardens, fields, meadows, parks, wooded areas and ravines hold countless possibilities.
