The Importance of Fungi in Arizona Ecosystems: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Catherine (Kitty) Gehring is Regents Professor of Biological Sciences at Northern Arizona University (NAU). She began her education more interested in animals than plants or fungi. She majored in Zoology as an undergraduate at Colorado State University and studied birds for her master’s degree at Indiana University. Dr. Gehring shifted to studies of plants and fungi during her PhD at NAU and went on to study rainforest-fungal-animal interactions as a post-doc in Australia before returning to NAU as a faculty member. She and her students use a combination of field studies, greenhouse and lab experiments and molecular analyses to understand how plant-associated fungi and their hosts interact in both basic and applied contexts. While interested in almost anything about fungi, her recent research has shifted towards understanding if/when/how fungi can help plants in a rapidly changing world.