Longcore featured in AAAS Member Spotlight

Joyce Longcore, a mycologist and associate research professor at the University of Maine, was featured in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Member Spotlight section of its website. Longcore’s unorthodox career as a mycologist peaked in a burst of achievement in 1997, which later resulted in the 2017 Golden Goose Award from AAAS, according to the article. Longcore nailed the mysterious organism that was decimating frog populations all over the world as a chytrid, an obscure aquatic fungus, and devised a way to isolate it into pure culture so it could be studied by other researchers, the article states. When asked if fungi are important, Longcore said, “Oh my goodness, yes. Fungi hold the world together.”