Amy Y. Rossman

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Amy Yarnell Rossman (born September 20, 1946, in Spokane, Washington) is an American mycologist and a leading expert in identifying fungi. [1]

Contents

Biography

Born in Spokane, Amy Rossman moved with her family, when she was six months old, to Portland, Oregon, and considers herself to be a native Oregonian. [2] Rossman graduated with a B.A. in biology from Grinnell College in 1968. [3] She received her Ph.D. in mycology in 1975 from Oregon State University (OSU). Her Ph.D. thesis The genus Ophionectria (Ascomycetes, Hypocreales) was supervised by William C. Denison (1929–2005). [4] As a graduate student she collected fungi in June 1970 in Puerto Rico's El Yunque National Forest and in Dominica and then in January 1971 in Jamaica. [2] She held a teaching fellowship in mycology from 1978 to 1978 at Cornell University. From 1979 to 1980 she was a research associate in botany at New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). [3] During the years from 1978 to 1980 she collected fungi in the neotropics. [5] From 1980 to 1983 she worked as a mycologist for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. In 1983 she became a mycologist for the USDA's Agricultural Research Service [3] and was appointed director of the U.S. National Fungus Collections. [6] [7] In the late 1980s the Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory (SBML) was formed and she was appointed the SBML's research leader. [8] [9]

In French Guiana on a 1986 expedition sponsored by the Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield Program, Rossman met the French botanist Christian P. Feuillet. [10] They married in King County, Washington, on 4 September 1988. They have a daughter. [2]

In 1996 Rossman told the science journalist Carol Kaesuk Yoon that for some types of organisms, such as microfungi, New York state's forests are almost as unexplored as the tropical forests. [11] Rossman, with coauthor David L. Hawksworth, suggested that about 1.4 million fungal species were undescribed as of 1997. [12]

In 2009 Rossman became the research leader of the Systematic Mycology and Microbiology Laboratory (SMML) in Beltsville, Maryland. She has also been director and curator of the U.S. National Fungus Collections (BPI — USDA Bureau of Plant Industry), which are located at the SMML. The SMML and the U.S. National Fungus Collections are part of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service. She led research on Hypocreales (particularly Calonectria , Nectria and Ophionectria ), Diaporthales and other microfungi that cause plant diseases. She made important collections, not only with her husband, but also with Laurence Skog and Gary Joseph Samuels. [13] Together with David F. Farr, she manages a database containing information about the fungal specimens in the U.S. National Fungus Collections. They also maintain a database with data on fungi that have plants as hosts. She has contributed extensively to the Index Fungorum. [14]

Rossman retired in 2014 from her USDA position. In retirement she has lived in Corvallis, Oregon, where she has an office at Oregon State University. [2] She is on the editorial board of the mycological journal Studies in Mycology . [15]

She was elected in 2004 a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). [16]

The standard author abbreviation Rossman is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. [17]

Books

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ Peabody, Erin K. (March 2007). "Seeds of Knowledge. New online guide helps identify the world's seeds and fruits". Agricultural Research Magazine. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Amy Rossman: An Oral History for Mycology". Dustin Howard. July 30, 2018. (interview by Meredith Blackwell at the 11th International Mycology Congress in San Juan Puerto Rico on July 20th, 2018)
  3. 1 2 3 American Men and Women of Science. Vol. VI Q-S (16th ed.). 1986. p. 312. ISBN   0-8352-2228-4.
  4. ↑ Rossman, Amy Y. (1975). "The genus Ophionectria (Ascomycetes, Hypocreales)". Oregon State University. (library catalog entry for doctoral dissertation)
  5. ↑ "Rossman, Amy Y. (1946-)". JSTOR Global Plants.
  6. ↑ "U.S. National Fungus Collections — History". Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory: Beltsville, MD, USDA Agricultural Research Service.
  7. ↑ "U.S. National Fungus Collections". Agricultural Rsearch Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Archived from the original on 2005-12-27.
  8. ↑ Miller, D.R.; Rossman, A.Y.; Kirkbride, J. (1989). "Systematics, diversity, and germplasm". In Knutson, L.V.; Stoner, A.K. (eds.). Biotic Diversity and Germplasm Preservation, Global Imperatives. Beltsville Symposia in Agricultural Research. Vol. 13. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 3–11. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-2333-1_1. ISBN   978-94-010-7549-7.
  9. ↑ "Mycologists Help Guard U.S. Borders" (PDF). Agricultural Research. March 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04.
  10. ↑ Funk, Vicki A. (July 2009). "Focus on Research Associates: The Passion of Christian Feuillet". Plant Press: A Quarterly Newsletter from the Botany Department (NMNH) and the U.S. National Herbarium. 12 (3).
  11. ↑ Yoon, Carol Kaesuk (November 5, 1996). "Forget the Tropics, Pharmaceuticals May Lie in Nearby Woods". The New York Times .
  12. ↑ Hawksworth, David L.; Rossman, Amy Y. (1997). "Where are all the undescribed fungi?" . Phytopathology. 87 (9): 888–891. doi:10.1094/PHYTO.1997.87.9.888. PMID   18945058.
  13. ↑ "Rossman, Amy Y." Index of Botanists, Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries.
  14. ↑ Rossman, Amy (March 2007). "Databases at the U.S. National Fungus Collections (BPI)" (PDF). MycoAfrica, Newsletter of the African Mycological Association (AMA). 1 (1): 1–2.
  15. ↑ "Editorial Board". Studies in Mycology.
  16. ↑ "Historic Fellows". American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
  17. ↑ International Plant Names Index.  Rossman.
  18. ↑ Barrett, John A. (March 1998). "Book review of Global Genetic Resources: Access, Ownership and Intellectual Property Rights. Beltsville Symposia in Agricultural Research 21, edited by K. Elaine Hoagland and Amy Y. Rossman" . Environmental Conservation. 25 (1): 83. doi:10.1017/S0376892998210125.
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