Carbone awarded MSA Fellow: CIFR Director Ignazio Carbone received the Mycological Society of America (MSA) Fellow at the 2024 MSA meeting (Markham, Ontario, Canada; June 9-12). Read more about this award and his contributions to the
field of mycology, on page 7 of the program found HERE. Congratulations! June 12, 2024

2024 Annual Collaborative Crop Resilience Program (CCRP) Meeting:  Amy Grunden (CCRP lead PI) and Mary Carbone (CCRP Project Manager) organized and hosted the 2024 Annual CCRP Meeting held in Fredericia, Denmark (June 4-5, 2024), at the Trinity Hotel & Konference Center.  There were 90 CCRP members in attendance from the USA, Denmark, Japan, and the Netherlands.  Invited guest speaker, Dr. Trent Northen from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory provided the Keynote talk titled “The Underground Network: Linking Root Exudates, Microbial Growth, and Carbon Sequestration”.  The Novo Nordisk Senior Scientific Manager, Dr. Thomas de Bang, provided an update on the “Impact of microbiomes in agriculture”. The meeting program consisted of 4 speaker sessions, 2 workshops, and a student/postdoc networking event.  June 7, 2024

Fungi Fusion: Congratulations to high school students Sidney Gomez, Kylie Hlava, Nathan Kao, and Max Williams, enrolled at the Early Engineering and Teacher College in Charlotte (https://www.cmsk12.org/ceecHS), who were awarded first place for their Fungi Fusion research project entitled “A recycling alternative using naturally occurring fungi to degrade plastic”. The Fungi Fusion project results were presented at the Senior Expo held at the UNC Cone Center on April 24, 2024. This event provides an opportunity for high school seniors interested in pursuing careers in research and teaching to present their project findings to administrators, scientists, teachers, and the public. Students partner and interact closely with peers and professionals to receive guidance and mentoring for developing their team projects and to foster local community and industry involvement. Student mentors for the Fungi Fusion team project included Dr. Morgan Carter, Department of Biological Sciences, UNC-Charlotte; Devin Tyler and Leah Weaver of Marc Cubeta’s lab (CIFR and DEPP) and Tarek Aziz (Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering) laboratories at NC State University. For more information on the Fungi Fusion research project visit (https://www.fungifusion.org/), (https://drive.google.com/file/d/13pb9gXfumAIz04LZDkz-aCr3JXmbAMlr/view), and (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61LIV92UMnc). April 24, 2024

Hawkes named WNR Distinguished Professor: Congratulations to Christine Hawkes for being one of twelve professors in CALS to be named a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor. See the video announcement HERE. February 23, 2024.