Program Book : Charles Darwin

1

International Conference on
Fungal Evolution and Charles Darwin:
From Morphology to Molecules

9-11 July 2009
Sirindhorn Science Home,
Thailand Science Park,
Thailand

Organized by:
National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC)
National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA)
Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST)

Sponsored by:

Content
page

Conference Program 4

Biography 8

Site Plan 22

4
Conference Program - Summary
9 July 009 10 July 009 11 July 009
Conference Program

Registration 08.00 – 09.00

Opening Ceremony Theme Theme 5
09.00 – 09.0
Theme 1 Keynote Lecture Keynote Lecture 5
09.00 – 10.00 09.00 – 10.00
Morning Session

Keynote Lecture 1
09.0 – 10.0 Plenary Lecture 7 Plenary Lecture 1
10.00 – 10.0 10.00 – 10.0
Coffee Break 10.0 – 11.00
Plenary Lecture 1 Plenary Lecture 8 Plenary Lecture 1
11.00 – 11.0 11.00 – 11.0 11.00 – 11.0
Plenary Lecture Plenary Lecture 14
11.0 – 1.00 Poster Presentation 11.0 – 1.00
Plenary Lecture 11.0-1.0 Poster Presentation
1.00 – 1.0 1.00-1.0

Lunch 1.0 – 1.0

Theme Theme 4 Theme 6

Keynote Lecture Keynote Lecture 4 Keynote Lecture 6
1.0 – 14.0 1.0 – 14.0 1.0 – 14.0
Afternoon Session

14.0 – 15.00 14.0 – 15.00 14.0 – 15.00
Coffee Break 15.00 – 15.0
15.0 – 16.00 15.0 – 16.00 15.0 – 16.00
16.00 – 16.0 16.00 – 16.0 16.00 – 16.0
Poster Presentation Poster Award and Closing
16.0 – 17.00 16.0 – 17.00
Poster Presentation
and Social Activity
16.0 – 18.0
Evening
Session

Dinner Talk
18.0 – 0.0

5
Conference Program
9 July 009
Morning Session
Theme 1 : Speciation and species concepts
Opening Ceremony
09.00 – 09.0 By Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sakarindr Bhumiratana
President of National Science and Technology Development Agency, Thailand

Keynote Lecture 1 :
Adaptation examined through comparative genomics in experimental speciation
09.0 – 10.0
By Prof. Linda M. Kohn
University of Toronto, Canada

10.0 – 11.00 Coffee Break

Conference Program
Plenary Lecture 1 :
Species concepts of Fusarium and possible examples of its speciation
11.00 – 11.0
By Dr. Takayuki Aoki
National Institute of Agrobiological Science, Japan

Plenary Lecture :
Complexities in naming fungal species resulting from the inability to define fungal
11.0 – 1.00 genera, species, and individuals, and our mycological history
By Dr. Scott Redhead
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada

Plenary Lecture :
Evolution of marine fungi, speciation by adaptation
1.00 – 1.0
By Dr. Jariya Sakayaroj
National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Thailand

1.0 – 1.0 Lunch
Afternoon Session
Theme : Bio- and phylogeography
Keynote Lecture :
Biogeography of macrofungi: Not everything is everywhere
1.0 – 14.0
By Dr. Gregory M. Mueller
Chicago Botanic Garden, USA

Plenary Lecture 4 :
Comparative biogeography of closely related, ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic
14.0 – 15.00 basidiomycetes: Hysterangiales and Geastrales (Phallomycetidae)
By Dr. Kentaro Hosaka
National Museum of Nature and Science, Japan

Plenary Lecture 5 :
Adding leaves to the Fungal Tree of Life: DNA barcoding mushrooms
15.0 – 16.00
By Prof. Jean-Marc Moncalvo
Royal Ontario Museum, Canada

Plenary Lecture 6 :
Progress and challenges with circumscribing species in lichen-forming fungi
16.00 – 16.0
By Dr. Thorsten Lumbsch
The Field Museum, USA

16.0 – 17.00 Poster Presentation

6

10 July 009
Morning Session
Theme : Tree of life
Keynote Lecture :
Fungi in the Tree of Life: From plants to their rightful realm
09.00 – 10.00
By Prof. Meredith Blackwell
Louisiana State University, USA

Plenary Lecture 7 :
From phytum to population : The molecular evolution of mycorrhizal fungi
10.00 – 10.0
By Dr. Dirk Redecker
University of Basel, Switzerland
Conference Program

Plenary Lecture 8 :
Evolution of hypocrealean pathogens of arthropods : A cretaceous explosion
11.00 – 11.0 By Dr. Joseph Spatafora
Oregon State University, USA
Dr. Nigel Hywel-Jones


1.0 – 1.0 Lunch
Afternoon Session
Theme 4 : Metabolites, extrolites and their evolution
Keynote Lecture 4 :
Extrolites, ecology and evolution : Functional molecular features are the leaders,
1.0 – 14.0 gene are followers
By Prof. Jens Christian Frisvad, Ph.D., Dr. techn.
Technical University of Denmark, Denmark

Plenary Lecture 9 :
Molecular and chemical ecology of the Xylariaceae: Importance of secondary
14.0 – 15.00 metabolites for classification and phylogeny
By Dr. Marc Stadler
InterMed Discovery GmbH, Germany

Plenary Lecture 10 :
Evolution and regulation of secondary metabolite biosynthesis in filamentous
15.0 – 16.00 fungi
By Prof. Barbara Howlett
The University of Melbourne, Australia

Secondary metabolites of insect pathogenic fungi
16.00 – 16.0
By Dr. Masahiko Isaka

16.0 – 18.0 Poster Presentation and Social Activity

18.0 – 0.0 Dinner Talk

7

11 July 009
Morning Session
Theme 5 : Medical mycology
Keynote Lecture 5 :
An emerging opportunistic pathogen, Penicillium marneffei in southern China and
09.00 – 10.00 its pathogenesis study
By Prof. Liyan Xi
Sun Yat-Sen University, P.R. China

Plenary Lecture 1 :
Medical mycology in Thailand and unique mycosis ; pythiosis
10.00 – 10.0
By Assoc. Prof. Dr. Angkana Chaiprasert
Mahidol University, Thailand

Conference Program
Plenary Lecture 1 :
Ecological fitting and pathogenic evolution in Exophiala dermatitidis
11.00 – 11.0
By Dr. Montarop Sudhadham
CBS Fungal Biodiversity Centre, The Netherlands

Allergenic fungi of North America and aeroallergen index studied with Burkard
11.0 – 1.00 Volumetric Spore Trap
By Assoc. Prof. Nabarun Ghosh
West Texas AM University, USA


1.0 – 1.0 Lunch
Afternoon Session
Theme 6 : Co-evolution of fungi and associates; Natural history
Keynote Lecture 6 :
Cooperation and conflict between domesticated fungi and insect societies
1.0 – 14.0
By Prof. Jacobus J. (Koos) Boomsma
University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Has classic field based natural history studies and taxonomy a role to play in
14.0 – 15.00 current mycology?
By Assoc. Prof. (lektor), Ph.D. Thomas Læssøe

Algicolous marine fungi and their associations
15.0 – 16.00
By Dr. Julian Mitchell
University of Portsmouth, UK

Chemical interactions of endophytes and their hosts – from parasitism to
16.00 – 16.0 mutualism
By Dr. Rainer Ebel
University of Aberdeen, UK

16.0 – 17.00 Poster Award and Closing

9

Theme Speaker

Prof. Linda M. Kohn
1. Speciation Dr. Takayuki Aoki
and species
concepts Dr. Scott Redhead
Dr. Jariya Sakayaroj
Dr. Gregory M. Mueller

. Bio-and Dr. Kentaro Hosaka
phylogeography Prof. Jean-Marc Moncalvo
Dr. Thorsten Lumbsch
Prof. Meredith Blackwell

Biography
. Tree of life Dr. Dirk Redecker
Prof. Jens Christian Frisvad, Ph.D., Dr.techn.
4 . Metabolites, Dr. Marc Stadler
extrolites and their
evolution Prof. Barbara Howlett
Dr. Masahiko Isaka
Prof. Liyan Xi

5 . Medical Assoc. Prof. Dr. Angkana Chaiprasert
mycology Dr. Montarop Sudhadham
Assoc. Prof. Nabarun Ghosh
Prof. Jacobus J. (Koos) Boomsma
6 . Co-evolution
of fungi and Assoc. Prof. (lektor), Ph.D. Thomas Læssøe
associates; Natural Dr. Julian Mitchell
history
Dr. Rainer Ebel

10
Prof. Linda M. Kohn
University of Toronto, Canada.
Linda Kohn is a Professor in the Department of Ecology
Speciation and species concepts

and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. A Mycologist
with wide interests in the field and well as the laboratory, she
has long been fascinated with pattern and process in speciation.
The work itself has evolved as new tools have emerged. She
has delimited and described species, initially trained in the use
of morpho-taxonomic approaches in the Sclerotiniaceae (and
other Leotiomycetes) as a student of Richard P. Korf at Cornell
University. More recently she has investigated the population-
species interface with population genetic approaches exploiting
multi-locus sequence data. She is also interested in the
evolutionary history of speciation under domestication, host shifts, and shoot vs. root infection
in Magnaporthe. She is a co-applicant and active participant on Sclerotinia sclerotiorum/Botrytis
cinerea and Magnaporthe/Gaeumannomyces genome initiatives. With James Anderson, she
is now engrossed in elucidating mechanisms of reproductive isolation emerging after adaptation
to strong selection in experimental populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and
Neurospora - the topic of her talk at this conference. She is a past President of the Mycological
Biography

Society of America.

Dr. Takayuki Aoki
National Institute of Agrobiological Science, Japan
Takayuki Aoki, born in Tokyo, February 1959, promoted at the Graduate School for
Biological Sciences, University of Tsukuba in 1987, under the guidance of the late Prof. Keisuke
Tubaki and the late Prof. Robert J. Bandoni, with a Ph. D. degree in Science (Biology) for the
theme, Taxonomical studies of the Exidiaceae (Auriculariales, Basidiomycotina) and allied
Heterobasidiomycetes. As a Post-Doc, he stayed as a DAAD scholarship holder in the school
of Prof. Franz Oberwinkler, Lehrstuhl Spezielle Botanik, Institut fuer Biologie I, Universtaet
Tuebingen, Germany from 1988 to 1989. In 1989, he obtained his position as a researcher at
the Department of Genetic Resources I, National Institute of Agrobiological Resources,
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and started working on the genus Fusarium, as
agriculturally important plant pathogens. In 1994, he stayed in
the laboratory of Dr. Helgard Nirenberg, Institut fuer
Mikrobiologie, Federal Biological Research Centre for Agriculture
and Forestry, Berlin, Germany as a guest researcher to learn
basic knowledge and skills for the Fusarium taxonomy. He
promoted to a Senior Researcher in 1992, sifted to Genetic
Diversity Department, National Institute of Agrobiological
Sciences in 2001, further to the NIAS Genebank Unit in 2006,
according to the re-organization of the institute. Currently he is
active as a curatorial mycologist of Microorganisms Section of
the NIAS Genebank (MAFF) in Japan and concentrating on
taxonomic studies of Fusarium. From April 2007 to March 2009,
he was a Treasurer of The Mycological Society of Japan

11
Dr. Scott Redhead
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada,
Canada

Speciation and species concepts
Dr. Scott A. Redhead is curator of the Canadian National
Mycological Herbarium (DAOM) and has been a research
scientist with Agriculture Agri-Food Canada since 1977.
Currently he is the assistant nomenclatural editor (fungi) for
proposals in Taxon published by the International Association
of Plant Taxonomists. He began his study of fungi in 1966 in
high-school, later obtaining his B.Sc. and M.Sc. while studying
with R.J. Bandoni (Univ. B.C.), switching to the Univ. Toronto to
study under Roy Cain, and completing his doctorate with David
Malloch. Since 1972, he has published over 100 articles on
diverse mycological topics covering biogeography, taxonomy, phylogeny, phytopathology,
ecology, lichenology, nomenclature, and history. He has focused on the systematics of genera
and families in the Agaricales most recently reconciling phylogenetic-based taxonomy with
historical concepts and literature. Scott received the Mycological Society of America’s
Alexopoulos Prize in 1988 and the Canadian Botanical Association’s George Lawson Medal
in 2007.

Biography
Dr. Jariya Sakayaroj
National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology,
Thailand
Dr. Jariya Sakayaroj graduated with a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Prince of Songkla
University, Thailand. Before working at BIOTEC, she has joined the International Women in
Engineering and Science Program in Canada and also working as a research assistant in
City University of Hong Kong, China SAR.
Recently, she is working as a research scientist at
Phylogenetics Laboratory, BIOTEC. She has published
extensively on diversity and molecular phylogenetic study of
freshwater, marine and endophytic fungi. Her recent research
interest includes phylogenetic study of marine ascomycetes,
especially unitunicates and bitunicates. Other areas of current
research include study of endophytic fungi that produce
antimicrobial activity.

1
Dr. Gregory M. Mueller
Chicago Botanic Garden, USA
Dr. Gregory M. Mueller received his B.A. and M.S. from
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and his Ph.D. from the
University of Tennessee. His research and teaching activities
Bio-and phylogeography

focus on the systematics, diversity, biogeography, ecology, and
conservation of macrofungi, especially fungi that form
ectomycorrhizas. He undertook postdoctoral work at Uppsala
University in Sweden and at the University of Washington in
Seattle before joining the staff at Field Museum of Natural
History in 1985 as curator of fungi in the Department of Botany.
In January 2009, Greg joined the staff at the Chicago Botanic
Garden as Vice President for Science and Education. He is an
adjunct faculty member at University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, and
Northwestern University. In addition to working on northern Illinois and northwest
Indiana fungi, Greg has carried out extensive fieldwork throughout Central and South America,
parts of Europe, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. He is author
of six books/book length volumes and nearly 100 journal articles. Greg is the International
Coordinator for Fungal programs at the Costa Rican National Biodiversity Institute (INBio); a
Biography

member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Species Survival Commission,
Fungal Specialist Group; a member of the Science Advisory Council for the Illinois Chapter of
The Nature Conservancy; and is past President of the Mycological Society of America.

Dr. Kentaro Hosaka
National Museum of Nature and Science, Japan
Education
• University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan B.S. Biology 1999
• Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR Ph.D Botany Plant Pathology 2005
Appointments
• Graduate Assistant: curation and databasing for the mycological collections, Oregon State
University Herbarium (OSC), Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State
University, Corvallis, OR (September, 1999 - December, 2005).
• Postdoctoral Research Scientist: The Field Museum, Department
of Botany, Chicago, IL (December, 2005-March, 2008).
• Curator, Mycology: Department of Botany, National Museum
of Nature and Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan (April,
2008-present)
Research areas for graduate studies
• Molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of the genus
Hysterangium and related taxa (Phallomycetidae,
Basidiomycota, Fungi).
Research areas for postdoctoral studies
• Molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of the genus
Laccaria and related taxa (Hydnangiaceae, Basidiomycota,
Fungi). NSF, REVSYS DEB-0445216.

1
Prof. Jean-Marc Moncalvo
Royal Ontario Museum, Canada
Jean-Marc Moncalvo is the Senior Curator of Mycology in
the Department of Natural History at the ROM, and a cross-
appointed Professor in the Departments of Ecology and

Bio-and phylogeography
Evolutionary Biology and Cell and Systems Biology at the
University of Toronto.
Jean-Marc grew up on the shore of Lake Geneva and in
the Swiss Alps. After completing his Ph.D. at the University of
Lausanne, and a modest career in soccer, he travelled
extensively throughout Asia with his wife Jasmine and spent
three years as a visiting scientist at National Taiwan University
in Taipei. He then moved with his family to North America to work
as a research associate in the Department of Biology at Duke University in North Carolina.
Jean-Marc joined the ROM in 2002 to take over responsibility for the extensive fungal
collection.
Jean-Marc’s research deals with molecular systematics, taxonomy, phylogeographic
relationships, biological diversity and ecology of fungi, particularly of gilled mushrooms. He has
published over 60 papers in scientific journals and books, and is regularly invited to talk at

Biography
departmental seminars, international conferences, and mycology workshops. At the University
of Toronto, Jean-Marc teaches an undergraduate course on fungi and a graduate course on
molecular phylogenetics, and supervises graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.

Dr. Thorsten Lumbsch
The Field Museum, USA
Dr. Lumbsch’s research program centers on the systematic, taxonomy and evolution of
fungi which form mutualistic symbioses with algae or cyanobacteria. The symbiotic organisms
usually look very different from the single bionts and form a special lichen morphology. There
are four major projects currently in the focus of his attention. i) Evolution of ascomata in
lichen-forming ascomycetes in relation to those fungi that are
phytopathogenous, mykorrhizal or saprobial. ii) Phylogeny and
systematics of the Thelotremataceae. iii) Another current
research project concentrates on Antarctic lichens, their
diversity and phylogeography. iv) Monographic studies in the
genus Lecanora. This large crustose lichen genus occurs
worldwide. Currently I plan to extend my studies towards south
east Asian species. These studies aim at describing the taxa
occurring in a region and compiling tools for the identification of
these organisms. Mophological, anatomical and chemical
characters are used to characterize the species.

14
Prof. Meredith Blackwell
Louisiana State University, USA
Meredith Blackwell was born in Abbeville, Louisiana, a
small town in the southwestern part of the state. After completion
of her PhD with CJ Alexopoulos at the University of Texas, she
spent thwo years at the University of Florida in Gainesville
working with Henry Aldrich (1972 1974) and one year
Tree of life

(1974-1975) as a postdoctoral associate with James Kimbrough.
It was at this time that she first studied insect fungi, the minute
termite-associated fungi previously described by Roland
Thaxter. Her first faculty position was at Hope College, Holland,
Michigan, a small liberal arts college with heavy teaching loads.
After six years she was granted tenure at Hope and in the same
week offered a position at Louisiana State University (1985), where she has had more time for
research and training of students, including many undergraduates. She began again at LSU as
an untenured assistant, and she advanced to Boyd Professor, October 1997. Blackwell has
published more than one hundred refereed papers. Her research has focused on several areas
of mycology: systematics and ecology of Myxomycetes, distribution and biology of
wood-decaying basidiomycetes, and evolution of arthropod-associated ascomycetes. Most
Biography

recently, she has investigated associations between beetles and endosymbiotic yeasts along
the Gulf Coast and in Panama. She collaborated on the fourth edition of Introductory Mycology
in 1996 (C. J. Alexopoulos, C. W. Mims, and M. Blackwell). She has edited two books with
entomologist colleagues on associations between fungi and insects (1984, 2004). She served
as Secretary (1986-1988) and President (1992-1993) of the Mycological Society of America
and as Secretary-General (1994-1998) and President (1998-2002) of the International
Mycological Association. In 1983 she was awarded the Alexopoulos Prize of the Mycological
Society of America in recognition of outstanding research efforts in the ten years since her PhD.
In 1996 she was named a Centennial Fellow of the British Mycological Society, and in 1998, a
fellow of AAAS. In 2003 she was named Distinguished Mycologist of the Mycological Society
of America. The Mycological Society of America also honored her on two other occasions as
recipient of the William H. Weston Teaching Award (2006) and Fellow (2007).

15
Dr. Dirk Redecker
University of Basel, Switzerland
Dr. Dirk Redecker is a lecturer and principal investigator
at the University of Basel (Switzerland). In his research, he has
been interested in the ecology and evolution of mycorrhizal
symbioses, in particular arbuscular mycorrhiza. He has been
active in the development of molecular tools for phylogeny and

Tree of life
identification of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and has studied
the molecular ecology of these fungi in the field.
In 2004, he received the Alexopoulos prize of the
Mycological Society of America. He is currently an associate
editor of Molecular Ecology and editorial board member of
Mycological Progress

Biography
Thailand
Dr. Nigel Hywel-Jones received a PhD in insect pathology from Exeter University in 1984.
Since 1989 he has been based in Thailand studying the biodiversity of invertebrate-associated
fungi. In 1993 he joined the National Center for Genetic
Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC) and established the
Mycology Laboratory. This has resulted in many links with
colleagues around the World to help promote the study of Thai
fungal diversity. For the study of ‘insect fungi’ Dr. Hywel-Jones
has made surveys in Australia, Brazil, Bhutan, Japan, Solomon
Islands and the UK - as well as Thailand. Dr. Hywel-Jones is
currently developing a new initiative for Bhutan.

16
Prof. Jens Christian Frisvad, Ph.D.,
Dr. techn.
Technical University of Denmark,
Metabolites, extrolites and their evolution

Denmark
Education and academic degrees
DTU: M.Sc.,1976 (civ. ing., chemistry), Ph.D. 1982
(lic. techn.), Dr. Techn., 1998

Tree of life
Employment
Ph.D. study, DTU, 1976-79, research fellow, IBT, DTU,
1980-82, Post Doctoral fellow, DTU, 1982-85
Research fellow, IBT, DTU, 1985-86, Associate professor,
IBT, DTU, 1986-2001,
Full Professor of Industrial Mycology, 2001 (IBT:
Department of Biotechnology, later BIC: BioCentrum-DTU, but
from 2008: Department of System Biology, DTU)
Research activities
The major research area has been discovery of new biotechnological products and prevention
of fungal growth and mycotoxin production based on systematics, evolution, biodiversity and
ecology of filamentous fungi. Special emphasis has been on a polyphasic approach to
Biography

biosystematics with chemical chromatographic analysis of Penicillium and Aspergillus species
being a core area (exo-metabolomics).
Publications
168 papers in international journals with peer review, 71 international book chapters with peer
or editorial review, main or co-editor of 7 books and co-author of one book, one patent, 14
chapters in proceedings, two book reviews in international journals and 15 Danish papers.
H-index 27

Dr. Marc Stadler
InterMed Discovery GmbH, Germany
Being acquainted with various disciplines of basic and applied mycology, as well as with
industrial microbiology and analytical chemistry, Marc Stadler has gained extensive experience
in the discovery and development of novel drugs, pesticides, and other biotechnological
products for the Life Science industries from fungi and other micro-organisms. He is
co-founder and Director of InterMed Discovery GmbH (http://
www.intermed-discovery.com), and teaches mycology at
Bayreuth University, Germany. His major research interests are
the taxonomy, chemotaxonomy, chemical and molecular
ecology, and phylogeny of the ascomycete family Xylariaceae.
These fungi serve as model organisms to evaluate correlations
between chemical diversity and functional biodiversity of
filamentous fungi. This is accomplished by using a polyphasic
combination of classical, molecular and metabolomic
methodologies.

17
Prof. Barbara Howlett
The University of Melbourne, Australia

Metabolites, extrolites and their evolution
Barbara HOWLETT is a Professor at the School of Bot-
any, the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her undergraduate
degree is in Biochemistry from the University of Melbourne,
and she has a Master of Science degree from the Australian
National University, Canberra, and a Ph.D from the University
of Melbourne.
Her expertise is in fungal genetics and diseases of plants
caused by fungal pathogens. Most of her research involves
Leptosphaeria maculans, the fungus that causes blackleg
disease of canola. Her approaches range from developing
plant disease management strategies, to jointly leading an
initiative to sequence and annotate the genome of this fungus. She is also analyzing genes
involved in the biosynthesis of an important class of toxins in a range of filamentous fungi, in-
cluding animal and plant pathogens.

Biography
Dr. Masahiko Isaka
Thailand
Dr. Isaka graduated with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Tokyo Institute of Technology
in 1991. He worked as a research scientist at the Institute of Drug Discovery Research,
Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Before moving to BIOTEC
in 1997 as a researcher, he has published extensively on
synthetic methods and, lately, on bioactive natural products.
Recently, he has a research on Natural Products Chemistry in
Thai Microorganisms. The goal of this research is to discover
novel, biologically active compounds that can potentially be new
drug leads or useful biological reagents from microbial
sources.

18

Prof. Liyan Xi
Sun Yat-Sen University, P.R. China
Professor Liyan Xi is the chairman of Dept. of
Dermatology, The 2 nd Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen
Medical mycology

University. She is also vice president of Chinese Society for
Medical Mycology since 2003. She graduated from Harbin
Medical University where she received bachelor (Clinical
Medicine) and master degree (Dermatology and Medical
Mycology) in 1987, and attained her MD PhD degrees at
Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical
Sciences, Beiking Union Medical College in 1990. She then
joined the faculty at the Dept. of Medical Mycology, Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy
of Medical Sciences, as research fellow until she changed her position to the Dept. of
Dermatology, The 2nd Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University as a professor in 1998.
Professor Xi had been invited to Research Center for Pathogenic Fungi and Microbial
Toxicoses, Chiba University in Japan as an lecturer and foreigner research fellow in
1995,2002,2003 respectively. She had also been invited to the Dept. of Pathology and Clinic
Biography

Microbiology, Virginia University of USA in 2004, and the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures
(CBS), The Netherlands as a visiting scholar in 2007.
She focus her study on the Pathogenesis of Penicillium marneffei and Biodiversity of
Fonsecaea for many years. Her publications since 2004 are listed following.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Angkana Chaiprasert
Mahidol University, Thailand
Education
• B.Sc.. (Botany) 2nd class honour with gold medal (Chulalongkorn University, THAILAND)
• M.Sc. (Botany), Chulalongkorn University, THAILAND
• Dr.rer.nat. (Biology) Ruhr University at Bochum, GERMANY
Research Interest
Molecular diagnosis, epidemiology and pathogenesis of
mycoses and tuberculosis and detection of resistant genes in
multi-drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Recent Position
• Associate Prof. in Microbiology, Department of Microbiology,
Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok
10700, Thailand
• Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, Faculty of Medicine
Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10700, Thailand

19
Dr. Montarop Sudhadham
CBS Fungal Biodiversity Centre,
The Netherlands
Dr. Sudhadham earned her doctoral degree at
Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures (CBS) with a promotion
at Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED),

Medical mycology
Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam with research
topic in “The origin of pathogenicity of Black yeasts: Animal-
associated natural life cycle and host shift of Exophiala
dermatitidis in Thailand”

Biography
Assoc. Prof. Nabarun Ghosh
West Texas AM University, USA
Dr. Nabarun Ghosh, Associate Professor of Biology, has two Ph.D. degrees, one from the
University of Calcutta and the other from The University of North Texas. He has been in research
for the last 18 years. During his post-doctoral research in Neuroscience at the
Division of Neuroscience at the Baylor College of Medicine he performed ultra-structural
studies of parasympathetic innervations of the heart of deficient knockout mice using in situ
hybridization, immunocytochemical labeling with transmission
electron microscopy. Dr. Ghosh has published 14 papers with
undergraduate researchers since 2002. He has worked with 42
undergraduate researchers, assisted five in acquiring funding
for their research, and published with 14 of his undergraduate
researchers. He has supervised research for 12 Graduate
students (MS). He has directed the Honors thesis for Saneea
Almas on Digital Microscopy on Polytene Chromosome of
Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly)”.

0
Prof. Jacobus J. (Koos) Boomsma
Co-evolution of fungi and associates; Natural history

Jacobus J. (Koos) Boomsma received his PhD degree from
the Free University of Amsterdam (1982) and had postdoctoral
assignments at the Universities of Utrecht, Oxford and Cornell.
He became Associate Professor at the University of Aarhus in
1990 and accepted a Professorship at the University of
Copenhagen in 1999 where he now leads the Section for
Ecology and Evolution and the Centre for Social Evolution at the
Department of Biology. His research addresses questions of
conflict and cooperation using mostly social insects as model
systems. He is a Research Associate of the Smithsonian Tropi-
cal Research Institute in Panama where his team works on
fungus-growing ants since 1993, but he has also interests in tropical programs in Asia and
Africa. He has had sabbatical stays at the Universities of Utrecht, Würzburg and Regensburg,
the latter two in connection with an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award (2001). He is, or
has served, on the editorial boards of nine international journals and has been a Vice President
of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (1999-2001) and the Society for the Study of
Evolution (2003). He is currently (2006-2010) the President and Congress Organizer of the
Biography

International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI).

Assoc. Prof. (lektor), Ph.D. Thomas Læssøe
Assoc. Prof. Læssøe is interested in taxonomic studies of pyrenomycetes, especially
tropical members of the Xylariaceae (Ascomycota). Currently the following geographical areas
are under investigation: Ecuador, Brazilian mata atlantica and
central Bahia, Puerto Rico, St. John (U.S. Virgin Islands), Sabah
(Malaysia), Brunei, parts of Northern Europe and Far Eastern
Russia. Other areas of current interest include the
Lasiosphaeriaceae and Hypocreales, fungal biodiversity and
Mycena (Basidiomycota) from Northern Europe. He is also an
active member of a Scandinavian projects on saproxylic
organisms.

1
Dr. Julian Mitchell

Co-evolution of fungi and associates; Natural history
University of Portsmouth, UK
Julian Mitchell gained his PhD in molecular genetics at the
University of Liverpool in 1985 and he started to study
filamentous organisms during his post-doctoral research period.
His interest in filamentous fungi continued and developed when
he was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Portsmouth.
Working with Professor E. B. Gareth Jones, Dr S. T. Moss and
Dr N. L. Hywel-Jones he initiated molecular studies on the
phylogeny of marine fungi and entomopathogenic fungi, as well
as genetic studies on thraustochytrids. During this period Julian
also became interested in employing techniques to detect and
analyse molecular signals from environments, using them
initially to study the role of bacteria in stone deterioration and sewage treatment. Latterly,
working in association with Professor B. Schulz and Dr A. Zuccaro, these techniques have been
used to study algicolous fungi. Over the last fifteen years, Dr Mitchell has served the British
Mycological Society in a number of roles including special interest secretary, member of
council and currently as membership secretary. At present he is the associate head of the School
of Biological Sciences.

Biography
Dr. Rainer Ebel
University of Aberdeen, UK
Dr. Rainer Ebel obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Biology in 1998 at University of
Würzburg, Germany, studying the chemical ecology of the Mediterranean sponge, Aplysina
aerophoba. Subsequently, he worked as a postdoctoral research
fellow in Professor Phil Crews’ group at University of California
at Santa Cruz, focussing on the natural products chemistry of
marine-derived fungi. In 2000, he transferred to University of
Düsseldorf, Germany where he was appointed a
Juniorprofessor in 2002. Since 2007 he is employed as a
lecturer in Organic Chemistry at the Marine Biodiscovery
Centre, University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Conference Secretariat
National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC)
113 Thailand Science Park,
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Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120 Thailand
Phone : (66) 2564 6700 ext. 3379-3382
Fax. : (66) 2564 6574
E-mail : darwinconf2009@biotec.or.th
URL: http://www.biotec.or.th/darwinconf2009

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