ARCHIVE

Writes Dr. Kathie T. Hodge, "Fungi are largely invisible, but they sure have made their mark on our world. I’ve spent many years learning and teaching about Fungi, handling poisoning cases, and serving as ambassador for the fungal kingdom. A biodiversity geek with an acute sense of wonder, I’ll share my reflections on the arts of noticing, describing, and identifying fungi. Are mushrooms as random as they seem? I will argue that such a basic thing as SEEING a fungus is in fact delightfully fraught with preconceptions, erasures, hopes, and chance. Join me for a trip across scales from molecules to morphology; microscapes to landscapes, and emergency identification to evolution.

Dr. Kathie T. Hodge, Associate Professor of Mycology, Cornell University, Ithaca NY. As a mycologist, I research the diversity of small fungi like molds, insect pathogens, and plant pathogens, exploring their genomes and biology, and naming the nameless. I love teaching. Lately my fun class ‘Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds’ draws over 300 curious undergraduates each Spring, and my intimate Fall Mushrooms class has a cap of 24. I also direct the Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium, which is among the largest research collections of fungi in North America. I recently read on the internet that I have the ultimate dream job, and I think it might be true."