Meet the IMS Board of Directors 2019-2024

Dr. César Marín, Universidad Santo Tomás, ChileIMS Newsletter Editor in Chief

Full Professor, Center for Research and Innovation on Climate Change, Science School, Universidad Santo Tomás, Chile

Research and interests:
• Relationship between soil/mycorrhizal biodiversity & ecosystem functions
• Application of mycorrhizas in agriculture, forestry, & others
• Natural selection in plant holobionts & mycorrhizas
• Soil metabarcoding bioinformatics & community ecology
• Southern temperate rainforests` biogeochemistry
• Lead of the South American Mycorrhizal Research Network
• Editorial Board: Frontiers in Microbiology/Genetics and Journal of Sustainable Agriculture and Environment

Dr. Patricia Silva-Flores, Universidad Católica del Maule, ChileCommunications Director (2022-2024)

Assistant Professor, Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados del Maule (CIEAM) y Centro del Secano, Universidad Católica del Maule, Chile.

Research and interests:
• Mycorrhizal and fungal ecology.
• Mycorrhiza-plant interaction.
• Mycorrhizal traits.
• Application of mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhiza in ecological restoration and sustainable agriculture.
• Mycology.
• Conservation biology.
• Science communication and outreach.
• Gender gap in STEM

Dr. David Johnson, University of Manchester, United KingdomICOM12 Organizer

Professor, Soil Microbial Ecology, University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Research and interests
• plant-soil interactions and biogeochemical cycles working in tropical, subtropical, boreal and temperate forests, grasslands, agroecosystems and peatlands.
I have broad interests and expertise, but from a mycorrhizal perspective I have particular focus on:
• Understanding how ectomycorrhizal fungi acquire organic forms of nutrients
• The role of mycorrhizal fungi in shaping multitrophic interactions and driving plant-soil feedback
• The ecology of fungal networks, including common mycorrhizal networks
• The use of isotope tracers to quantify resource transfers and exchange in ecosystems

Dr. Franck Stefani, Agriculture and Agri-Food, CanadaTreasurer

Research Scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, Canada
Curator of the Canadian Collection of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (CCAMF)

Research and Interests include:
• In vivo and in vitro cultures of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
• Molecular systematics and genetics of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
• Soil fertility and soil microbiome in agricultural and forest ecosystems

Dr. Jonathan Plett, University of Western Sydney, AustraliaDirector

Associate Professor; Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney, Richmond, NSW, Australia.

Research and Interests
• The broad aim of my research is to identify and understand how signals are sent and perceived by plants and their associated microbiota to coordinate development and enable this ecosystem to survive under less than ideal conditions.

Dr. Ian Dickie, University of Cantebury, New ZealandDirector

Professor, Microbial Ecology School of Biological Sciences University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Research and Interests

• ecosystem ecologist focussing on the development and application of molecular tools to determine the role of mycorrhizal and other fungi in community and ecosystem-level outcomes.
• major focus is the role of mycorrhizas in woody plant establishment, including the invasion of wilding conifers
• long-standing interest in fungal community ecology, including both deterministic (e.g., niche partitioning) and stochastic mechanisms.
• editor for New Phytologist
• served on the editorial board of Mycorrhiza and Plant & Soil.

Dr. Miranda Hart, UBC Okanagan, CanadaDirector, Past-Treasurer

Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, UBC Okanagan, Kelowna, BC Canada

Research and Interests:

• use of microbes in sustainable agrosystems and restoration
• community ecology of arbuscular mycorrhizas in undisturbed, natural systems.
• Associate Editor for two peer-reviewed journals and has
• served on the NSERC Scholarships and Fellowships panel (Ecology) (2013-15)