Joyce Longcore Wins American Association for the Advancement of Science Award

Joyce LongcoreCongratulations to SBE Research Professor Joyce Longcore for being selected as a 2012 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Longcore has been hugely influential in the field of chytrid research, her lab containing hundreds of chytrid isolates from all over the world. She was the first to describe the amphibian pathogenic chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, and is still actively collecting new specimens of chytrids, characterizing them and discovering new species.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is a fungus that causes the disease chytridiomycosis in amphibians, and Longcore’s research has helped us better understand amphibian decline. Invisible pathogens of this chytrid are introduced through global trade of wildlife and have dire consequences such as declines in amphibian populations on at least four continents.

Longcore has trained many students and researchers in the field on how to isolate and identify chytrids. She has been an advisor of 4 graduate students and has served on the thesis committees of 10 other students. Joyce is also a fellow elected by the Mycological Society of America in 2008. Congratulations Joyce!