Dr. Martha Christensen (born 4 January 1932, Ames, died 19 March 2017, Madison) was an American mycologist, botanist and educator known as an expert in fungal taxonomy and ecology, particularly for soil-dwelling fungi in the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium . [1]
Christensen received her B.S. degree in 1953 from the University of Nebraska, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in botany from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She was hired as the first female faculty member in the Department of Botany at the University of Wyoming in 1963. [2]
She served as president of the Mycological Society of America from 1987 to 1988, and received the organization's William A. Weston Award in teaching excellence in 1991. In 2013 she received the Johanna Westerdijk Award from the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute. [1] As a conservationist she served as a board member and volunteer for the Wyoming Outdoor Council [3]
Christensen's research covered a wide variety of mycological topics, and she was supported in that work by over 60 grants. [1] Over the course of her career she gathered free-dried a large fungal spore collection that was eventually donated to the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute. The species Penicillium christenseniae , Penicillium marthae-christenseniae , and Aspergillus christenseniae were named in her honor. [1]
The standard author abbreviation M.Chr. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. [4] [5]
Penicillium is a genus of ascomycetous fungi that is part of the mycobiome of many species and is of major importance in the natural environment, in food spoilage, and in food and drug production.
The Westerdijk Institute, or Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, is part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The institute was renamed on 10 February 2017, after Johanna Westerdijk, the first female professor in the Netherlands and director of the institute from 1907 to 1958. The former name of the institute was CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre or Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures. Despite the name change the collection maintained by the institute remains the CBS collections and the use of CBS numbers for the strains continues.
Paecilomyces is a genus of fungi. A number of species in this genus are plant pathogens.
MycoBank is an online database, documenting new mycological names and combinations, eventually combined with descriptions and illustrations. It is run by the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute in Utrecht.
Carl Frederik Albert Christensen was a Danish systematic botanist. He graduated in natural history from the University of Copenhagen under professor Eugenius Warming. He was then a school teacher in Copenhagen, and later superintendent at the Botanical Museum. He was a specialist in ferns and published a catalogue of the World's Pteridophytes, Index Filicum. In addition, he authored a three-volume work on the history of botany in Denmark.
Paul Sydow was a German mycologist and lichenologist, father of Hans Sydow (1879–1946).
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 studied the microbiology of dairy products and soil fungi, and in particular researched 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.
Wenying Zhuang is a Chinese mycologist. She is known for her contributions to the study of species diversity and phylogeny of Ascomycetes.
Gladys Elizabeth Baker was an American mycologist, teacher, and botanical illustrator, known for her extensive work in biological and mycological education, and the morphological study of myxomycete fructifications. She further contributed studies to the Island Ecosystems Integrated Research Program of the U. S. International Biological Program.
Franz Petrak was an Austrian-Czech mycologist.
Chester Ray Benjamin was an American mycologist. His research was focused on the taxonomy of fungal molds belonging to the orders Eurotiales and Mucorales. Born and raised in Ohio, Benjamin received his undergraduate education from Mount Union College in Alliance after serving in the Navy for four years during World War II. Benjamin earned his Doctoral degree in 1955 from the University of Iowa under the tutelage of George Willard Martin.
Johanna Westerdijk was a Dutch plant pathologist and the first female professor in the Netherlands.
Agathe Louise van Beverwijk was a Dutch mycologist and botanist. She spent most of her career at the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, where she was director from 1958 until her death in 1963.
Effie Almira Southworth Spalding (1860–1947), was an American botanist and mycologist, and the first woman plant pathologist hired by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Her most important discovery was the 1887 identification of the fungus Colletotrichum gossypii as the cause of cotton cankers, a disease which killed thousands of acres of cotton and was a major economic threat. She taught botany at several institutions, worked at the Desert Botanical Laboratory with her husband, and established the Botany Department Herbarium at the University of Southern California.
Yolande Dalpé is a former Research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. She became the first mycologist in Ottawa to study the taxonomy of mycorrhizal fungi. Her research focuses on developing new information on taxonomy, phylogeny, distribution and biology of fungi, including systematic research related to biosecurity/alien invasive species as well as species involved in the development of bioproducts. She was awarded the Lawson Medal by the Canadian Botanical Association for her "cumulative, lifetime contributions to Canadian botany, for the research she has performed in mycology, and has been recognized nationally and internationally." The standard author abbreviation Dalpé is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Pedro Willem Crous is a South African mycologist and plant pathologist.
Aspergillus christenseniae is a species of fungus in the genus Aspergillus. It is from the Cervini section. The species was first described in 2016. It has been reported to produce 4-hydroxymellein, terremutin, orange-red anthraquinone, and chlorflavonin. The species was named for Martha Christensen.
Amy Yarnell Rossman is an American mycologist and a leading expert in identifying fungi.
The Aspergillaceae are a family of fungi in the order Eurotiales which are commonly known as the blue and green molds. The family includes the commonly known and observed genera of Aspergillus and Penicillium amongst other lesser known mold genera but also includes larger ascomycete fungi such as Penicilliopsis.
Maria Muntañola Cvetković was a Spanish mycologist based in Serbia. After fleeing to Argentina due to the Spanish Civil War, she obtained her degrees from the University of Buenos Aires and Sorbonne University and moved to Belgrade, where she worked as a professor at the University of Novi Sad and became a full professor at the University of Belgrade. A 1952 Guggenheim Fellow, she became one of Serbia's first microfungi experts, described eight species of ascomycetes and was the first president of the Mycological Society of Serbia.