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DOE Award for Looney

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Brian Looney (Matheny Lab) has been awarded a US Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Award for his project “From saprotrophy to symbiosis: comparative genomics and functional diversity of a diverse ectomycorrhizal lineage in the Populus mycorrhizome (Russulaceae, Basidiomycota).”  The SCGSR program provides supplemental funds for graduate awardees to conduct part of their thesis research at a host DOE laboratory in collaboration with a DOE laboratory scientist.  The award period for the proposed research project at DOE laboratories may range from 3 to 12 consecutive months.

Congratulations, Brian!

NSF Graduate Fellowships – Updated (again)

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Five Six current or incoming EEB students were awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships or honorable mentions:

Awards:

Honorable mentions:
Update: Also note that Kelly Rooker, a graduate student in math who is in EEB faculty member Sergey Gavrilets‘ lab, was also awarded an NSF fellowship.

Update 2: Angela Chuang has decided to enter EEB in the fall; numbers have been updated to reflect this.

In the areas of ecology and systematics, EEB tied for 12th 9th place out of all universities in awards and honorable mentions (note that UTK EEB is the only department broken out; all other numbers were summed across all departments in other universities). In these areas EEB had more students honored than Harvard, Duke, Stanford, Yale, and many other universities with strong equivalent departments. Below is a table of EEB and all other institutions with any awards or honorable mentions ecology or systematics. Across all areas and departments, UTK got 12 awards and honorable mentions in total.

Institution Awards + Honorable Mentions
University of California-Davis 16
University of Washington 13
University of California-Berkeley 9
University of California-Santa Cruz 9
Cornell University 8
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 8
Princeton University 7
Texas A & M University Main Campus 7
University of Tennessee Knoxville, all departments 7
University of Tennessee Knoxville, EEB only 6
Colorado State University 6
Michigan State University 6
University of Florida 6
University of Arizona 5
University of Colorado at Boulder 5
University of Georgia 5
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 5
Utah State University 5
Indiana University 4
Oregon State University 4
University of California-Santa Barbara 4
University of Chicago 4
University of Michigan Ann Arbor 4
University of Wisconsin-Madison 4
Pennsylvania State Univ University Park 3
Stanford University 3
University of California-Los Angeles 3
University of California-San Diego 3
University of Montana 3
University of South Florida 3
Yale University 3
Arizona State University 2
Harvard University 2
Montana State University 2
Oklahoma State University 2
Purdue University 2
SUNY at Stony Brook 2
University of California-Irvine 2
University of Hawaii 2
University of Idaho 2
University of Illinois at Chicago 2
University of Kansas Main Campus 2
University of Missouri-Columbia 2
University of Notre Dame 2
University of Pittsburgh 2
University of Texas at Austin 2
University of Utah 2
University of Vermont &amp State Agricultural College 2
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 2
American Museum Natural History 1
Boise State University 1
Boston University 1
Central Michigan University 1
College of William and Mary 1
Dartmouth College 1
Emory University 1
Florida Gulf Coast University 1
Florida International University 1
Florida State University 1
Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology – University of Hawaii Manoa 1
Humboldt State University 1
Humboldt State University Foundation 1
Kent State University 1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1
Miami University 1
Missouri State University 1
North Carolina State University 1
North Dakota State University Fargo 1
Old Dominion University 1
Portland State University 1
Rutgers University New Brunswick 1
Salisbury University 1
San Francisco State University 1
San Jose State University 1
Syracuse University 1
Texas State University – San Marcos 1
Trustees of Boston University 1
Tufts University 1
University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus 1
University of California-Riverside 1
University of Central Florida 1
University of Connecticut 1
University of Maine 1
University of Massachusetts Amherst 1
University of Nevada Reno 1
University of New Hampshire 1
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1
University of North Carolina at Charlotte 1
University of Oklahoma Norman Campus 1
University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras 1
University of Virginia Main Campus 1
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 1

Institutions with no awards or honorable mentions not listed.

Note that for this table, ecology and systematics correspond to NSF categories “Life Sciences – Ecology”, “Life Sciences – Systematic Biology”.

Grant to Matheny for new Fungi of Australia volume

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Brandon Matheny and Neale Bougher (Department of Conservation, Western Australia) have received a grant from the Australian Biological Resources Study, in conjunction with matching funds from the Western Australia Naturalists’ Club, Inc., to add a systematic volume to the Fungi of Australia series. The subject of the volume will be the Inocybaceae of Australia, a family of ectomycorrhizal fungi particularly diverse in temperate regions of Australia.

Phi Kappa Phi award winners at EUReCA

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Assistant Professor Brandon Matheny sponsored two undergraduates, Pawel Kosentka (biochemistry concentration) and Sarah Sprague (psychology major), in an undergraduate research project that examined the evolution of fungal toxins in the mushroom family Inocybaceae. This work was also performed in collaboration with Dr. Shawn Campagna and Amanda May in the Chemistry Department. Pawel and Sarah’s research was featured at the Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement, also known as EUReCA. Of the 187 presentations, Pawel and Sarah’s poster won one of three Phi Kappa Phi awards. See https://news.utk.edu/2011/03/22/eureca-research-week/ for more information.

REU supplement to Matheny grant

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Brandon Matheny has gotten a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) grant from the NSF for his existing grant for a revision of Australian species of Inocybaceae. Quoting from the NSF REU site, “The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in any of the areas of research funded by the National Science Foundation. REU projects involve students in meaningful ways in ongoing research programs or in research projects specifically designed for the REU program.”