On April 10, the Prairie Research Institute honored employees for their outstanding achievements and excellent work. INHS Andrew N. Miller was awared the Distinguished Research Scientist Award.
Illinois State History Survey mycologist Andrew N. Miller is an international expert on the biodiversity and systematics of fungi. While his research primarily focuses on on small, wood-inhabiting fungi, he also possesses a broad knowledge on the taxonomy of mushrooms and has discovered and described more than 100 new fungal taxa.
Miller has an extensive publication record; he is first, second or third author on 66 publications, has been cited more than 6,700 times, and has an H-index of 27. He also has been the principal investigator on 12 grants and co-PI for eight grants totaling $13,783,416 in the past 13 years. These grants range from detection of bat white-nose syndrome throughout Illinois to fungal inventories in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to surveys of fungal distributions along an altitudinal gradient in Peru.
As director of the herbarium, Miller is responsible for the care and management of over 1.2 million plant and fungal specimens. He has collected, databased, and preserved more than 5,000 specimens and more than 6,500 fungal isolates in culture, including over 100 type specimens.
As the only mycologist on the University of Illinois campus, Miller answers several queries per month on fungus-related questions—primarily “Can I eat this?” He has provided consultant services for the Illinois Poison Control Center and the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center since 2004 and developed a popular workshop on the Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of Illinois, which he has presented 26 times for Nature Centers, Forest Preserves, community colleges, and Illinois Extension. He also has mentored six post-docs, nine Ph.D. students, three M.S. students, and 16 undergraduate students.
Miller has served on several committees for the Mycological Society of America and serves on the editorial boards for the journals MycoKeys, Mycologia, and Organisms, Diversity and Evolution.