Julia Vinzelj
Mar 18, 2024
In March, Dr Sabine M. Podmirseg joined the 32nd Fungal Genetics Conference in Pacific Grove (California, USA), and met up with the present AFN members there!
Rarely do scientists travel across the Atlantic for "just" a conference visit, but this time it's different. As an invited speaker, Dr Sabine M. Podmirseg, head of the former HiPoAF project and co-lead of the Austrian FUNGAS team, made the trip to sunny California to join the 32nd Fungal Genetics Conference in Pacific Grove. Over 800 people from 35 nations were coming together there to talk about fungi and meet other researchers.
On March 13th, in the concurrent session "Extremophilic and Anaerobic Fungi", she presented some of the work that has been done in the HiPoAF project and some of the work that has been and will be done in the currently running FUNGAS project. Her talk hit a nerve, and a lively discussion on the various methodological approaches and issues ensued and continued throughout the coffee break.
Aside from enjoying the beautiful scenery, Sabine also met up with other attendees from the Anaerobic Fungi Network: Dr Jolanda van Munster and her Glycomycology team from the SRUC (UK), Dr Kerstin Voigt from the University Jena (Germany), Dr Yan Wang from the University of Toronto (Canada), and, of course, Dr Michelle O'Malley and her team from the University of California. Together, the AFN members went for lunch at a Mexican restaurant next to the sea.
