Congratulations to Plant and Microbial Biology professor John Taylor on receiving the British Mycological Society’s 2024 John Webster Award. The award recognizes individuals whose work has profoundly impacted fungal biology over the course of their careers.
Taylor, who is one of the most well-known mycologists worldwide, was selected for his exceptional contributions to fungal biology, in areas such as fungal phylogenetics, population biology, molecular ecology, and medical mycology. In 1990, he co-authored a paper describing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers and methods to enable molecular identification and taxonomy of fungi. The approaches that Taylor helped develop revolutionized fungal phylogenetics and taxonomy. When high-throughput DNA sequencing became routine, ecologists began to use the same primers and approach to bring molecular precision to studies of mycobiomes of the environment (air, water, soil, plants) and of humans.
In recent years, Taylor has primarily focused his research on Coccidioides immitis—the fungi known for causing the Valley Fever. He has discovered that cocci had lost genes that other fungi use to eat plants and gained those for devouring meat, and is working with researchers at UC San Diego to study how future outbreaks of the disease might be driven by climate change and drought. This research has been covered by Vox and the Washington Post.
Taylor is the first person outside of the United Kingdom to have received the award. He will deliver a lecture at the next BMS Annual Scientific Meeting, where he will formally receive the award. Learn more about the John Webster Award at the British Mycological Society awards page.