Principal Collaborators
David Hibbett (PI, Clark University, Worcester MA, USA) is an expert in molecular phylogenetics of Basidiomycota, and has performed morphological, cytological, and paleomycological studies, with a particular focus on polypores, corticioid fungi, and lentinoid fungi. He also has interests in classification methods and phyloinformatics.
Karl-Henrik Larsson (Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway) is an expert in both classical taxonomy and molecular phylogenetics of all groups of corticioid fungi. He is the primary author of the forthcoming Corticioid Fungi of North Europe and many other publications on corticioid fungi.
Karen Nakasone (Center for Forest Mycology Research, Madison WI, USA) is an expert on taxonomy of corticioid fungi, with a focus on members of the “phlebioid clade”. She has performed extensive morphological studies, including analyses of cultural characters, as well as molecular phylogenetics.
Tuomo Niemelä (Botanical Museum, University of Helsinki, Finland) is an expert on taxonomy of Polyporales, with emphasis on boreal and temperate taxa. He has authored a comprehensive treatment of Finnish polypores, and numerous articles on taxonomy of polypores.
Trainees
Dimitris Floudas is a PhD student in the Hibbett laboratory. Dimitri’s interests include taxonomy and biodiversity of Basidiomycetes. He is particularly interested on wood rotting fungi, their succession on wood degradation and the ligninocellulolytic mechanisms that these species use to degrade lignin and cellulose. Furthermore he is interested in the conservation and maintenance of fungal species in ecosystems. He will be working on Phanerochaete and related taxa in the Phlebioid clade.
Alfredo Justo is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Hibbett laboratory. Fredo has interests in the systematics and evolution of different groups of Basidiomycetes, mainly Polyporales and Agaricales. As a part of Polypeet he is studying the genus Trametes and related taxa in the “core Polyporoid” clade.
Dimi (left) and Fredo (right) collecting in Florida
Otto Miettinen is a PhD student in the Niemelä group; he has broad interests in resupinate basidiomycetes including Polyporales. He will study the genera Antrodiella, Skeletocutis and other Polyporales of uncertain phylogenetic position.
Beatriz Ortiz-Santana received her PhD in 2006 (University of Puerto Rico) and has studied taxonomy of Boletales and Agaricales . She is a research scientist working with Nakasone, and manager of the CFMR herbarium. She will be working on the taxonomy and evolution of the Antrodia clade.
Elisabet Sjökvist is a PhD student who is supervised by Larsson and is studying corticioid Polyporales, specially the genus Phlebia and related taxa, and higher-level phylogenetics of Polyporales.
left to right O. Miettinen, B. Ortiz-Santana and E. Sjökvist
Additional collaborators
Harold H. Burdsall (Fungal Decay Diagnostics, Black Earth WI, USA) is the former Project Leader of the Center for Forest Mycology Research, and an expert on wood-decaying Fungi. He is the author of a monograph of Phanerochaete.
Leif Ryvarden (University of Oslo, Norway) is an expert on taxonomy of polypores and other wood-decaying Agaricomycetes. He is the author, with R. L. Gilbertson, of the floras European Polypores and North American Polypores.