Abbreviation | IMA |
---|---|
Formation | 1971 |
Type | NGO |
Legal status | professional organization |
Purpose | promotes mycology |
Headquarters | Exeter (UK) |
Region served | World |
Membership | mycologists worldwide. |
Website | IMA Official website |
The International Mycological Association (IMA) is a professional organization that promotes mycology, the study of fungi. It was founded in 1971 during the first International Mycological Congress, which was held in Exeter (UK). [1] [2]
The IMA publishes the open access scientific journal IMA Fungus.
It represents the interests of over 30,000 mycologists worldwide. [3]
The society makes several awards for contributions to mycology: [4]
Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans, including as a source for tinder, traditional medicine, food, and entheogens, as well as their dangers, such as toxicity or infection.
In mycology, the terms teleomorph, anamorph, and holomorph apply to portions of the life cycles of fungi in the phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota:
David Leslie Hawksworth is a British mycologist and lichenologist currently with a professorship in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Madrid, Spain and also a Scientific Associate of The Natural History Museum in London. In 2002, he was honoured with an Acharius Medal by the International Association for Lichenology. He married Patricia Wiltshire, a leading forensic ecologist and palynologist in 2009. As of 2022, he is the Editor-in-Chief of the journals IMA Fungus and Biodiversity and Conservation.
Meinhard Michael Moser was an Austrian mycologist. His work principally concerned the taxonomy, chemistry, and toxicity of the gilled mushrooms (Agaricales), especially those of the genus Cortinarius, and the ecology of ectomycorrhizal relationships. His contributions to the Kleine Kryptogamenflora von Mitteleuropa series of mycological guidebooks were well regarded and widely used. In particular, his 1953 Blätter- und Bauchpilze [The Gilled and Gasteroid Fungi ], which became known as simply "Moser", saw several editions in both the original German and in translation. Other important works included a 1960 monograph on the genus Phlegmacium and a 1975 study of members of Cortinarius, Dermocybe, and Stephanopus in South America, co-authored with the mycologist Egon Horak.
Kathleen Maisey Curtis, Lady Rigg was a New Zealand mycologist and was a founder of plant pathology in New Zealand.
Charles Thom was an American microbiologist and mycologist. Born and raised in Illinois, he received his PhD from the University of Missouri, the first such degree awarded by that institution. He was best known for his work on the microbiology of dairy products and soil fungi, and in particular his research into the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium. His work influenced the establishment of standards for food handling and processing in the USA. He pioneered the use of culture media to grow microorganisms, and, with food chemist James N. Currie, developed a process to mass-produce citric acid using Aspergillus. Thom played an important role in the development of penicillin in World War II.
Cecil Terence Ingold CMG was "one of the most influential mycologists of the twentieth century". He was president of the British Mycological Society where he organised the first international congress of mycologists. An entire class of aquatic fungi within the Pleosporales, the Ingoldian fungi, were named after him, although recent DNA studies are changing the scientific names.
Mildred Katherine Nobles was a Canadian mycologist. Born in Colborne, Northumberland County, Ontario, the only surviving child of William Harold and Ethel Nobles, she spent her early life at the family farm in Vernonville. She was an authority of the culture and identification of wood-rotting fungi, and developed a numerical identification system today known as the "Nobles Species Code". Nobles died in Ottawa, Ontario after a short illness. She was awarded the "Distinguished Mycologist" award, along with Rolf Singer, by the Mycological Society of America in 1986.
Roy Watling, PhD., DSc, FRSE, F.I.Biol., C.Biol., FLS is a Scottish mycologist who has made significant contributions to the study of fungi both in identification of new species and correct taxonomic placement, as well as in fungal ecology.
Franz Oberwinkler was a German mycologist, specialising in the fungal morphology, ecology and phylogeny of basidiomycetes.
John Webster was an internationally renowned mycologist, head of biological sciences at the University of Exeter in England, and twice president of the British Mycological Society. He is recognised for determining the physiological mechanism underpinning fungal spore release, though is probably best known by students of mycology for his influential textbook, Introduction to Fungi.
Edith Katherine Cash was an American mycologist and lichenologist.
Luella Kayla Weresub, Ph.D. was a world authority on the botanical nomenclature of fungi, especially corticioid fungi and sclerotium-producing basidiomycetes. She was a mycologist at the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, with Canada’s federal department of agriculture. Her influence on Canadian mycology and her concern with public education are recognized in the Canadian Botanical Association’s annual Luella K. Weresub lecture in Mycology and the Weresub Prize awarded for the best student paper published by a Canadian student in mycology.
Pedro Willem Crous is a South African mycologist and plant pathologist.
The Illinois Mycological Association or IMA is a group of mushroom enthusiasts, citizen scientists, foragers, and professional mycologists based in the Chicago area.
John Waldo Taylor is an American scientist who researches fungal evolution and ecology. He is Professor of the Graduate School in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Rhoda Williams Benham was an American mycologist, taxonomist, and pioneer of the field of medical mycology. Throughout her career, she taught and trained many medical mycologists at Columbia University, while also conducting and publishing fundamental research in the field. Her most renowned works include her publications on the genus Candida, which established her as an authority on the yeast-like fungi pathogenic to man.
Stanley Hughes (1918–2019) was a Canadian scientist who is known throughout the global field of mycology for developing and introducing a precise and meticulous system for classifying fungi that is still used today. A naturalized Canadian, he was a federal research scientist for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at what is today the Ottawa Research and Development Centre.
Chester Wilson Emmons was an American scientist, who researched fungi that cause diseases. He was the first mycologist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where for 31 years he served as head of its Medical Mycology Section.
Cécile Gueidan is a mycologist and lichenologist who applies morphological and molecular biological methods to the origin and taxonomy of fungi that live in lichen symbioses and within rocks.