Iris Charvat, an associate professor in the Botany Department at the
University of Minnesota, studies the development and cell biology of fungi
including vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM). She is also interested in
the distribution of mycorrhizae in aquatic systems and their possible role in
the evolution of land plants. She received her M.S. in botany from the
University of Illinois, and Ph.D. in Biology from the University of
California, Santa Barbara in 1973. She is presently the Editor of the
Mycological Society of America Newsletter. Last year she received the
Morse-Amoco Award for outstanding contribution to Undergraduate
Education at the University of Minnesota