Special SDMS Meeting January 24, 2014 6:30 PM in Room 104 with Britt Bunyard

The SD Mycological society will be hosting a special meeting on Friday January 24, 2014 at 6:30 PM in Room 104, Casa Del Prado in Balboa Park with Britt Bunyard Ph.D. as our guest speaker.

His talk will be “Mycorrhizotopia: Fungi are the Puppet Masters of the World”

Come learn about plants and their mushroom partners, the mycorrhizal fungi. Britt’s presentation is for general audiences, and does not require prior scientific knowledge. The discussion will cover the latest understanding of how plants grow. In most, if not all, cases, plants enter into obligate partnerships with mushrooms and other fungi. Put another way, some fungi farm plants for a living. Find out why most of our treasured edible mushrooms are not able to be cultivated and how this knowledge will increase your chances of success in finding them in the forest!

Britt Bunyard will also accompany the SDMS group on a foray the following day at Felicita Park (Saturday January 25, 2014). Refer to the SDMS website for more details. All are welcome to attend both functions.

Brief Bio for Britt Bunyard, Ph.D.

Britt Bunyard is the Founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of the mycology journal Fungi (www.fungimag.com) which has the largest circulation of any mycological publication in North America. He also has worked as a full-time Biology professor in Ohio and Wisconsin, teaching a broad range of undergraduate and graduate courses. The main focus of Britt’s research interests has centered on the co-evolution of macrofungi and Diptera, the true flies.

Bunyard has coauthored (2012) the recent book Mushrooms and Macrofungi of Ohio and Midwestern States: A Resource Handbook published by The Ohio State University Press. Other scholarly achievements include publication of scientific papers in 16 different international research journals, two book chapters, one patent, articles in popular science magazines, and one full-length book of travel essays from living in Southeast Asia.

Britt has served as Editor-in-Chief of NAMA’s journal McIlvainea and newsletter The Mycophile and as a Subject Editor for the Entomological Society of America’s journal Annals of the Entomological Society of America. Britt gives several invited lectures in North America and abroad each year and regularly takes part in many mycological events and forays.