fungal systematics and evolutionary mycology
Identifying patterns of biological diversity and the underlying processes that create and maintain such patterns are fundamental questions in evolutionary biology. My research aims to integrate studies of fungal biodiversity and molecular phylogenetic analyses with data from disciplines such as genetics, ecology and geography to address broad questions of how these biological and physical processes interact to drive evolution. My empirical work thus far has focused primarily on the diversity and evolution of understudied groups of both Basidiomycete and Ascomycete fungi. I am also very interested in conservation biology and the roles that both mycology and phylogenetic systematics have to play in this field. I am currently in the first year of a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Dennis E. Desjardin at San Francisco State University, working on an NSF funded study of the systematics and evolution of the agaric genus Mycena and related taxa (i.e., the mycenoid fungi).