Monika S. Fischer

My department is hiring a non-seed plant assistant professor!! Come join us @ubcbotany.bsky.social! BC has spectacular non-seed plant diversity and I would love to nerd out with a future colleague about all those cute little green guys outside! 💚 pls share!

academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/31140

Super curious to get everyone’s feedback! Whatchya thinkin??? 👀

New paper from our lab! ⤵️

My fellow profs at 🇨🇦Canadian universities! Please take a moment to read and sign this letter urging the Federal government to align its economic plans with climate change action and resilience:

sustainabilitydigitalage.org/featured/sus...

My first year has been an epic parade of First’s. My students, colleagues, mentors, and community 10000% make it worth it, and it’s these people that motivate me to get out of bed and get to work every day (okay, some days it’s the mushrooms too)! With gratitude, onwards! 🍄

Holy macaroni I am learning A LOT by teaching this class. I truly had no idea how much I didn’t know, but thanks to my mentors for normalizing this humbling sensation. I’m at the beginning of my career. Knowledge builds with time. And I am evermore in awe of my mycological and education elders. 🧵

I’m also learning to teach as a prof for the first time. I’m currently teaching the mycology class that I’ve been dreaming of for 10+ years. I have a decent amount of experience with very similar classes as a former student and TA, but being the prof is totally different and a humbling experience. 🧵

The students in my lab are AWESOME and it’s just as much their lab now as it is mine. Progress feels slow at times, but it also feels intentional and good and I’m so excited for these data-driven stories we’re working on to get fleshed out a bit more so we can share them with you all! 🧵

I made sure we had the equipment necessary to culture fungi and maintain my culture collection, and then I hired my first two students (undergrads) to help me get the lab set up while also fleshing out and finishing a project I started as a postdoc. 🧵

Being financially insecure for the majority of my life, it was difficult to spend my precious start-up money at first, and it felt really overwhelming to build an entire lab from scratch. It helped to take it one project and one person at a time. 🧵

…I’m very much still figuring it out, but I’ve started adding things to my calendar like “prepare for meeting” and “reflect on meeting” to force myself to take the time I need to process and remember everything while also forging ahead with good intention. 🧵

Time management is really real. There are so many cool fun things to do, and just plain necessary things that have to get done - and a lot of these come out of nowhere, with little warning (especially as a newPI), and it’s up to me to decide what’s important and manage my own time… 🧵

I’ve stuck with this career path because I am so energized and enamored with the myriad of things an academic can do in any given day/week/month - e.g. reading, writing, teaching, mentoring, forging collaborations, field work, lab work, computational work, attending seminars, traveling, etc. etc. 🧵

The one year anniversary of my arrival at UBC flew by a month ago. Thanks to fellow newPI and former grad school pal @mattolm.bsky.social for reminding me of one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned this past year: *make* time to reflect! Here are some reflections on my first year as a PI & prof… 🧵

ecoevojobs.net 2025-26

UPDATE: The 2025-2026 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resources! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

he Department of Plant Pathology at the University of California, Davis is seeking applications for a fulltime, tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Mycology, with a focus on plant pathogenic, symbiotic, or mycotoxigenic fungi and fungal-like organisms (e.g., oomycetes). We are looking for a highly motivated and creative scientist with a strong background in mycology and/or the biology of fungi and fungal-like organisms that interact with plants. The successful candidate will be expected to develop a world-class, externally funded research program that integrates both fundamental and applied aspects of fungal biology within the context of plant pathology. We welcome applicants pursuing a wide range of research topics related to plant-associated fungi, including but not limited to mechanisms of fungal pathogenesis or symbiosis with plants, population genomics and evolution of fungal plant pathogens, plant-associated fungal microbiomes and plant-microbe interactions, and/or one health approaches to fungal diseases and antifungal resistance. Applicants working in other relevant research areas involving pathogenic, symbiotic, or mycotoxigenic fungi or fungal-like organisms that affect plant health are also encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will have significant opportunities for collaboration with faculty in plant pathology, microbiology, genomics, and agricultural sciences, and to contribute to addressing issues of importance to California’s agricultural and natural ecosystems. The appointee primary teaching responsibilities will be teaching Introductory Mycology, an upperdivision lab class, and SAS 30, Mushroom, Molds & Society, a general education class for non-majors. Additional graduate and undergraduate teaching responsibilities may be assigned based on departmental needs and the candidate’s expertise. The department offers modern instructional facilities, including a newly renovated teaching laboratory.

Please repost -- The Univ. California Davis dept of Plant Pathology is hiring a Fungal biologist / Mycologist

Applications due Dec 1

Application portal: recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07339

Screenshot shows part of the job posting (with alt-text of the same text)

HELP WANTED!

Calling all mycophiles in California, Oregon, Washington, or British Columbia!

My research focuses on Laccaria amethysteo-occidentalis, pictured below. I need to collect mushrooms from wild and urban areas across its range.

Plz send mushrooms if you find any! I can pay shipping 💜 🍄‍🟫

Hexaflexagons Hooraaaay flexagons! Happy October. Historical Note: This video is based on a true story. Arthur H. Stone really did invent the hexaflexagon after playing with…

How is it possible that I only very recently learned about Hexaflexagons?! This is so bamboozlingly delightful! Math is just the coolest.

vimeo.com/147799851

…i feel like to answer these questions I need two datasets from one time-period and area: (1) dataset with a lot of samples at one time-point and then, l (2) a dataset with, ideally, the same number of samples, but spread out across a time series

Testing for community assembly and membership - if you’re simply trying to detect all the organisms in a place, during a period of time - does it matter if you spread out sampling over time vs. space? Will you observe equivalent variation between samples across time vs. across space?

Sun is shining, birds are chirping, and a colleague just gave me a sack of 💩 (specifically some local alpine rabbit poops) …today is a good day and I officially have the best job ever!

Dear Microbial Ecologists - has anyone directly tested sampling effort spread out over time vs. space? For example, 100 samples collected at a single time-point, vs. 100 samples collected across multiple timepoints (neither time nor space are significant factors for community assembly/dynamics/etc.)

2025 Report: U.S. Science & Federal Funding Cuts How 300+ researchers are navigating federal funding cuts in science. This report reveals strategies, challenges, and what institutions are doing to stay afloat.

@biorender.bsky.social put numbers to the vibes in the US right now... "87% of labs affected or expecting disruption" 💔
www.biorender.com/2025-science...

Our newest special issue is now live! Check it out to discover more about diverse and beautiful Fungi🍄🍄‍🟫🍄 On the cover: the fly agaric, Amanita muscaria, releasing its spores in the early morning light. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Photo of a square wood board with several wood dowels rising up out of the board at various heights and positions

Teaching prep for fall motivated me to revisit the awesome Oral History For Mycology project on YouTube. So many great stories, but shout out to @benwolfe.bsky.social for highlighting this incredible Bray-Curtis ordination from 1969 by Martha Christensen. So cool. So glad we have computers now 😅

We are looking for a Postdoc in the LaBella Lab!

Do you love fungi 🍄, genetics 🧬and bioinformatics 💻 - then this might be a good fit for you!

jobs.charlotte.edu/postings/63307

Applications accepted through July 1

“Distribution of haploid chromosomes into separate nuclei in two pathogenic fungi”🍄🧬 a plot twist in the story of multinucleate filamentous fungi! Really cool and bizarre new work from the lab of Xin Li! @science.ubc.ca @ubcbotany.bsky.social @science.org

www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Aw jeez, thanks Arif! 🥰

Six happy mycologists standing in a line showing off their favorite finds of the day. In the background is a dry, mostly brown, recently burned forest.

A tacklebox full of mostlt mushroom treasures, plus a few liverworts, a lichen, and some yellow flowers

Inaugural Fischer Fire Fungi Lab field trip was a huge success! We collected so many familiar faces (Pyronema, Geopyxis, Tricharina, etc.), learned a bunch about pyrophilous insects, and fell in love with the monsoon-moistened sagebrush/pine forests on the doorstep of BC’s desert landscape. ❤️‍🔥🍄‍🟫

What I wish I knew: 33 thoughts for early career researchers Thirty three reflections I wish someone had shared with me early in my research career.

What I wish I knew: 33 thoughts for early career researchers
Reflections I wish someone had shared with me early in my research career.

predirections.substack.com/p/what-i-wis...