Michele Wiseman
No preferred pronouns
I am queer and I am a plant pathologist.//
As a young adult I often turned to the forest to cope with grief from the loss of my father. During those magical trips into the woods, I discovered the massive biodiversity of macrofungi extant in the lush temperate rain forests of the pacific northwest. One thing lead to another and the next thing I knew I was graduating with a biology degree and had an adviser who insisted I couldn’t make a living hunting mushrooms. C’est la vie. He encouraged me to explore the world of plant pathology, so I did, and I’ve been studying plant pathogenic fungi ever since. My PhD research is focused on the characterization of powdery mildew susceptibility genes in hop.