Welcome Ankita Sawant and Jeffrrey Lackmann to North Dakota State University! Both Ankita and Jeffrey will be working on their Master’s theses in Environmental and Conservation Sciences and are currently developing their research proposals. Ankita plans to focus on mycorrhizal aspects of conservation for the wildflower Gaillardia aristata, a species of special concern in Minnesota. Jeffrey plans to combine his interests in decomposition, fungi and insects.
An NSF EAGER grant to Laura Aldrich-Wolfe will provide two years of funding for us to study fungal dispersal between coffee farms and forest in southern Costa Rica in collaboration with Dr. Priscila Chaverri at the Universidad de Costa Rica, Dr. Catherine Lindell at Michigan State University, and Dr. Benedicte Bachelot at Oklahoma State University.