NOVEMBER

In Search of the Xiao Ren Ren Lecture with Colin Domnauer - Tuesday, Nov. 12th​​

Colin Domnauer is a PhD candidate in Biology at the University of Utah. His research has taken him from the tropical forests of southern China to the remote mountains of the northern Philippines in search of an elusive ethnomycological mystery: a hallucinogenic bolete mushroom reported to induce visions of little people, the Lanmaoa asiatica. In his lecture, Colin unraveled the story of these enigmatic mushrooms, from their ethnographic history to modern relevance, weaving in scientific insights gained along his journey in uncovering the unknown psychoactive compounds in this mysterious mushroom. 

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DECEMBER

​Fungi of the Great Salt Lake with Dr. Bonnie Baxter & Dr. David Parrot​ - Thursday, Dec. 19th

Dr. Bonnie K. Baxter and Dr. David Parrot are Professors of Biology and Directors of the Great Salt Lake Institute at Westminster University. Baxter’s research focuses on the lake’s extreme biology, leading to projects on the lake ecosystem and the limits of life in salt. Baxter has published dozens of scientific articles, the first academic book on the biology of Great Salt Lake, and the first children’s book about this lake. Parrot received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Humboldt State University in Northern California, and his Ph.D. in plant biology at Utah State University. He studies soil microbes growing around the roots of salt loving plants on the shore of Great Salt Lake to see if the microbes help the plants survive in this extremely salty and dry environment. Their lecture described the process and findings from their recent research to meet the fungi that are a vibrant part of the ecosystem of the GSL.

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FEBRUARY

Anthropogenic Disturbance Relevant to Utah Trees with Dr. Jon Wang - Wednesday, Feb. 19th

​Climate change and human activity are rapidly transforming terrestrial ecosystems through disturbance processes like wildfire, timber harvest, urbanization, and drought. It is crucial to understand these changes as society increasingly relies on functioning landscapes for natural climate solutions. We use drones, satellite remote sensing, and data science to map changes in ecosystem structure and function and understand how plant ecology interacts with the carbon cycle. Specifically, we are interested in vulnerability to and recovery from natural and anthropogenic disturbance, carbon stocks and fluxes, phenology, and urban heat island. Our work focuses on hot-spots of change in vulnerable ecosystems, including boreal and Arctic ecosystems, fire-prone forests and shrublands, and urban landscapes. This collaborative, interdisciplinary work relies heavily on machine learning and high-performance computation to produce large datasets, which enables us to examine time series of ecosystem change at city-to-continent scales.

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MARCH

Citizen Science with Tyler Hacking - Wednesday, March 12th 

Tyler Hacking will speak on a summary of his Mysteries of the Morchella project from 2019-2024 and how to get involved in citizen science. He will cover specific methods and materials for ideal documentation, collection and preservation of fungal specimens and how these methods and materials can be used to document other genera of fungi. Included in this talk will be iNaturalist project navigation, biostatistical and quadrat analysis, sequencing for collected specimens of interest, and a discussion on 2025 research publication. 

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APRIL

When Water is Scarce: The Unique Fungi of Springs, Seeps, Bogs, and Fens with Andrew Claassen - date tbd