Kristopher Hennig (LinkedIn)
Kristopher has also happily agreed to present his paper to us upon completion.
Kristopher Hennig graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire in 2007 with a major in Biology and a minor in Environmental Studies and pre-professional health care. (Quite an ambitious course of study.)
He wrote the following short essay explaining his personal interest in mycology and how he intends to use this knowledge in the future.
It was fungi as the mysterious, the curious, and the unknown that drew me in. Six Ways Mushrooms Can Save the World, a talk presented by Paul Stametz for TED Talks, sparked the seed of my interest by emphasizing the role fungi can take in benefiting mankind and the natural world. Continued reading, particularly of Stametz and Nicholas Money, clarified how very little we know about these organisms and the role the scientific method has played in clarifying their form and function. Ironically, this “spark” of interest occurred a full year after having spent months working with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on a Wisconsin prairie research and restoration project. To me, this only reinforces my belief that the world needs scientists who can research effectively, but also write lucidly for multiple audiences, not only for their academic peers and journals.
I began my Masters degree in Biology at the University of Mississippi because it offered the opportunity to work with organisms that are critical components of forest health and ecosystem processes. Additionally, studying ectomycorrhizal ecology offers the opportunity to work in a rapidly advancing field that is quickly clarifying the importance of fungal organisms and tying fungal ecology to general ecological theories. Though the understanding of ectomycorrhizal distributions and population structure is growing exponentially in my field, our understanding of what individual species are doing in the soil is lagging behind. As I continue studying ectomycorrhizal ecology, I plan to move my research towards the use of the increasing number of fungal genomes being sequenced. I hope to use a blend of functional and comparative genomics, high-throughput sequencing technologies, and physiological research to describe the interactions of ectomycorrhizal fungi with the environment, plants and trees, and other soil organisms.
References:
Hennig, Kristopher Jordan, "Ectomycorrhizal Fungal Succession in a Native Monterey Pine Forest and Its Potential Influence Upon Forest Population Dynamics" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 132. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/132