International: Studies of Fungal Biodiversity in Northern Thailand

该奖项是根据2009年美国恢复和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。真菌在发挥作用和维持自然界生态过程中的巨大重要性是毋庸置疑的，但我们对它们的生物多样性的了解还远远不完整。热带森林被认为是以真菌生物多样性为特征的陆地生态系统，但这种生物多样性的很大一部分尚未被记录在案。该项目每年在三个夏季为至少四名本科生和/或研究生提供机会，作为研究项目，对与泰国北部热带森林有关的真菌和类似真菌的生物进行一个月的生物多样性研究。在泰国，学生将与清迈大学、Mae Fah Luang大学和蘑菇研究中心的科学家和研究生互动。学生参与者将从来自全美大学的申请者中挑选出来。该项目的国际方面预计将为这些学生带来非凡的培训/教育体验，因为与泰国学生的互动将包括共享相同的住宿、在泰国北部的研究地点联合实地工作以及在实验室举行会议，在此期间，他们将共同处理和分析样本和数据。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The immense importance of fungi in the functioning and maintenance of ecological processes in nature is unquestioned, but our knowledge of their biodiversity is far from being complete. Tropical forests are thought to be the terrestrial ecosystems characterized by the highest fungal biodiversity, but a major portion of this biodiversity has yet to be documented. This project provides the opportunity, during each of three summers, for at least four undergraduate and/or graduate students to spend a month carrying out biodiversity studies of fungi and fungus-like organisms associated with tropical forests in northern Thailand as research projects. In Thailand, the students will interact with scientists and graduate students at Chiang Mai University, Mae Fah Luang University and the Mushroom Research Centre. Student participants will be selected from a pool of applicants that will come from universities throughout the United States. The international aspects of the project are expected to represent an extraordinary training/educational experience for these students, since the interaction with their student counterparts in Thailand will involve sharing the same accommodations, joint field work at study sites in northern Thailand and laboratory-based sessions during which they will work together on processing and analyzing samples and data.