Volume 10, Part 4, November 1996

BMS CENTENARY SYMPOSIA AND DINNER, SHEFFIELDAPRIL 10-12 1996

The main academic event of the Centenary Yearwas a three-day meeting held at RanmoorHouse, University Hall of Residence, Sheffield.Over 300 members and speakers attended. TheSociety was welcomed to Sheffield University bythe Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor David Lewis, aformer BMS President. In his reply thePresident, Professor John Webster said howpleased the Society was to be meeting inSheffield. This venue had been chosen becauseit is in Yorkshire, the county in which the Societyhad been conceived in 1895 and delivered in 1896at meetings of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union.Also, the Department of Animal & PlantSciences at Sheffield University has an excellentresearch reputation, and a high concentration ofable and willing mycologists, supported by astrong group of local amateurs.

The theme of the meeting was Mycology Past,Present and Future. Mycology Past was repre-sented by the first day's symposium, 'A Centuryof Mycology' in which distinguished speakersselected by the Special Interest Committeesreviewed progress over the past century in fieldsof mycology which British mycologists hadopened up, or to which they had made majorcontributions.

A Century of Mycology

J. Webster (University of Exeter). A century ofBritish mycology.

S. Bartnicki-Garcia (University of California,Riverside). The hypha: unifying thread of thefungal kingdom.

D. Read (University of Sheffield). Mutualisticfungi.

A.D.M. Rayner (University of Bath).Interconnectedness and individualism in fungalmycelia.

A.L. Demain (Massachusets Institute ofTechnology). Fungal secondary metabolites.

C.E. Caten (University of Birmingham).Genetics and molecular biology of plant patho-genic fungi.

M.R.D. Seaward (University of Bradford).Lichens and the environment.

M.S. Fuller (Darling Marine Center, Maine). Theflagellated fungal spore.

D. Minter (International Mycological Institute,

Egham). Fungal recording and mapping.

R. Watling (Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh).British mycology and the amateur.

The papers presented in this symposiumtogether with contributions by C.T. Ingold, B.C.Sutton and D.N. Pegler have been published as aSymposium Volume A Century of Mycology byCambridge University Press; the volume was onsale at the meeting.

Fungal Biodiversity

Mycology Present was illustrated by a sympo-sium on Fungal Biodiversity, convened by DavidHawksworth and Roy Watling.

The spirit of the Rio Convention covers thediversity of all living things including fungi, atmolecular, cellular and organismallevels, in addi-tion to the habitats in which they are to befound. The Biodiversity symposium at Sheffieldtried to cover all these aspects with Prof. DavidHawksworth (IMI) commencing by setting thescene. Dr Brian Bainbridge (London) thenreviewed genetic aspects, Dr John Taylor(California) considered the use of molecular toolsand Prof. Michael Dick (Reading) the organisa-tion of flagellated fungal cells.

The larger fungi seem always to be in thelimelight, so attention was paid to a series ofgroups of less well-known fungi from oftenobscure habitats. The speakers included DrStephen Moss (Portsmouth) on Trichomycetesfrom the guts of arthopods, Dr Alex Weir(Cleveland) on the Laboulbeniales from the exo-skeletons of arthropods and Prof. C. arpin(Cambridge) on the diversity of anaerobic fungifound in ruminant stomachs. Prof. MeredithBlackwell (Louisiana) concluded the first sessionby applying molecular techniques to understand-ing the phylogeny of fungi associated withinsects.

Dr A. Rossman (USA) commenced the after-noon session with a paper 'Towards a virtualreality of fungal biodiversity in North America',and then continued by chairing the session. Agroup of speakers followed who covered thediversity of saprotrophic macro-fungi found intropical rainforest by Dr Jean Lodge (PuertoRico), those associated with non-agriculturalcrops in tropical ecosystems by Dr P. Cannon(IMI), diversity of mycorrhizas by Prof. IanAlexander and Prof. Alistair Fitter (UK), fungiassociated with mosses (Dr Peter Dobbeler,Munich) and with lichens (Dr Paul Diederich,

11II

Luxembourg). Prof. John Peberdy (Nottingham)concluded the formal session by drawing theaudience's attention to the great potential offungi in the industrial arena whilst Dr RoyWatling (Edinburgh) summarised the habitatsmentioned earlier, emphasising their diversityand the importance of their maintenance

This symposium turned out to be highly suc-cessful and we look forward to the appearance ofmost of the contributions in the journal'Biodiversity and Conservation'.

Postgraduate Paper Reading and PosterPresentation Competitions

The fmal day of the Centenary Symposia was anopportunity for participants to look forward tothe potential of the next 100 years with presenta-tions by Postgraduate Students, the professionalmycologists of the future. There were over 30poster presentations and 17 paper readingentries in four sessions, each chaired by recentBerkeley Award winners: Prof. Geoff Gadd,Prof. Neil Gow, Prof. Lynne Boddy and Dr GeoffRobson. The standard for both competitionswas extremely high and it was an exciting ifrather daunting task for the judges - Dr JulietFrankland, Dr Brian Sutton and Dr Susan Isaac.The entries covered a wide range of topics usingdiverse techniques, ranging from field identifica-tion to molecular methods. The winning entrieswere:

Paper Reading Competition

Winner:

Roger H. Williams, Department of MicrobialBiotechnology, Horticulture ResearchInternational, Wellesbourne: Dissemination ofthe biocontrol fungus Coniothyrium minitans.

Highly Commended:Jonathan Biddulph, Department of PlantPathology & Weed Science, HorticultureResearch International, Wellesbourne: Newinsights to black root rot.

Thanuja Perera, Department of Molecular & CellBiology, University of Aberdeen: Contact guid-ance as a mechanism of penetration in humanpathogenic fungi.

Karen Simms, Department of Biosciences,University of Kent: Significance of ectomycor-rhizal fungi in tropical ecosystems.

Poster competition

Winner:Amanda Craven-Griffiths, Research School ofBiosciences, University of Kent: Effects of inocu-

Volume 10, Part 4, November 1996

lation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on threeindigenous plant species from a desertifiedecosystem in Southern Spain.

Highly Commended:Mounia Ihabi, Laboratoire de Cryptogamie etPhytopathologie, Universite du Littoral, France.Susceptibility of apples to fungal pathogens fromthe orchard to cold storage.

Maria Martin, Department of Plant Biology,University of Barcelona, Spain. Studies onRhizopogon (Basidiomycotina) I:R. villosulus.

Emily Pryce-Jones, Department of PlantSciences, University of Oxford. Erysiphe gramin-is f.sp. hordei and the role of extracellular cellu-lases in pathogenicity.

In his winning paper Roger Williams presentedan interesting and concise account of the role ofsome soil mite and collembolan species in thedissemination of the fungus Coniothyrium mini-tans in the field. This fungus infects sclerotia ofsome agriculturally important plant pathogensand is a therefore a potentially useful biocontrolagent. Roger spoke with great aplomb, makinguse of well constructed summary slides through-out and easily holding the attention of the audi-ence.

In the winning poster Amanda Craven-Griffiths described her work aimed at improvingthe rates of revegetation in a desertified ecosys-tems in Southern Spain by inoculating indige-nous shrubs with appropriate species ofarbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Her poster includ-ed an appropriate amount of text, in a distincttype face of good size with excellent illustrations.It was easy to follow the work carried out and theposter was both informative and attractive.

It was quite clear that all entrants had invest-ed a great deal of thought, time and effort intopreparing their final presentation, whether writ-ten or verbal, and a great deal of deliberation wasrequired for the judges to reach their final deci-sions. In these days of colour photography, read-ily available word processors, computer graphicsand high quality printers some aspects of visualaid preparation are greatly facilitated. However,it is the use and clarity of those aids which isvital. Several posters, despite excellent science,lost marks because the message was hidden intoo much text. The presentations with greatestimpact led the audience easily through the aims,the techniques used and the results obtained,with clarity and conciseness, to reach the conclu-sions and tempting hints of future work. Thestandard was certainly high and if it is main-tained we can all look forward to some excellentpresentations in years to come. The judges were

•

•

Volume 10, Part 4, November 1996

so impressed by the contributions that in addi-tion to the winning entries, Highly Commendedstatus was awarded to three further entries ineach category. Our seasoned presenters werecertainly set a high standard by our youngermycologists! It was a most enjoyable day andcontained some of the highlights of theCentenary Symposium.

Poster Displays by Overseas MycologicalSocieties

Several of the overseas mycological societies whohad been invited to send representatives to theCentenary meeting displayed attractive posters.These included historical reviews of their ownsocieties and their distinguished members, therelationships between their society and the BMSand photographic illustrations of the characteris-tic ma crofungi of their region.

Centennial Dinner

A dinner to mark the Centenary was held in TheCutlers ' Hall, Sheffield on the evening of 10April. The principal guests were The LordMayor and Lady Mayoress of the City ofSheffield, Mr and Mrs David Hislop and theMaster Cutler Mr David Stone. The Universityof Sheffield was represented by Professor DavidLewis, Pro Vice Chancellor, accompanied by MrsLewis. Other guests included representatives ofoverseas mycological , plant pathological andlichenological Societies , the InternationalMycological Association (IMA), related Britishsocieties, Honorary members, 23 formerPresidents (see Fig 2 on back cover) and also for-mer Officers of the BMS.

After dinner the inaugural presentation ofIMA medals took place. (Details of the medalsare reported in Mycologist 10, 143). De Barymedals for distinguished contributions- to myco-logical research were awarded to John Corner(received on his behalf by Roy Watling) and toTerence Ingold who made a speech of acceptancewhich was warmly applauded. An Ainsworthmedal was awarded to John Webster for extraor-dinary service to international mycology. Otherpresentations and congratulations to the Societyon its Centenary were made by other societies: asilver medal from the Societe Mycologique deFrance, and illuminated addresses from theHungarian Mycological Society, the BotanicalSociety of Poland , the Chinese MycologicalSociety, the Botanical Society of Scotland, andthe International Mycological Institute. ThePresident of the Mycological Society of Americapresented congratulations on behalf of MSA.Other gifts to the BMS were a copy of the book

by Carolus Clusius Fungorum in Pannonis obser-vatorum. Brevis Historia et Codex Clusii by theHungarian Mycological Society. Dr Eef Arnoldspresented the Society with a copy of Oversichtvan de Paddestoelen in Nederland by Arnolds,Kuyper & Nordeloos. Dr Michele Heath, onbehalf of the Canadian PhytopathologicalSociety, presented two books : Diseases and Pestsof Vegetable Crops in Canada by Howard ,Garland & Seaman (eds) and Diseases of FieldCrops in Canada by Martens, Seaman &Atkinson (eds). The illuminated addresses havebeen deposited in the BMS archives and thebooks in the BMS Library at R.B.G. Kew. ThePresident thanked all the donors for their gen-erosity and affection.

Party for those who were members of theSociety at the Jubilee meeting in 1946

On 11 April a gathering of those who had beenmembers of the Society at the time of theJubilee in 1946 took place at Ranmoor House.Those present were Peter Austwick (NewZealand), Alan Burges, John Burnett, MaryEnglish, Stan Hughes (Canada), Mary Noble andJohn Webster. Each spoke by telephone toGeoffrey Dobbs in Bangor who was unable toattend. See Fig 3 on the back cover.

Postgraduate Party

The last day of the Centenary meeting endedwith a lively postgraduate party at which thecompetition prizes were awarded by Susan Isaacand bouquets presented by Tony Lyon (LocalSecretary) to his helpers. Dancing followed tothe accompaniment of a Ceilidh Band. Theparty provided an excellent opportunity forBritish and overseas postgraduates to meet.Judging by the energy of the postgraduates atthe party and the quality of their presentations,the future of mycology is assured.

Aclmowledgements

The success of the Sheffield meeting is due inlarge measure to the BMS Centenary WorkingParty, to the conveners of the symposia, thechairmen, judges, speakers and those who pre-sented posters to all of whom the Society paysits thanks. Above all we must be grateful to DrTony Lyon and his team of helpers who workedso hard to make the Centenary meeting such amemorable event.

Susan Isaac, Roy Watling, John Webster