Mary
Stovall
Mimi
begins a new career as a monkey microsporidian mycologist at Tulane Primate
Center, Covington, Louisiana 2001.
Standing, left to right: Mimi, Megan,
Mae; seated: Lydia and her daughter, Lilly
Mimi began her graduate
research in the Department of Botany at Louisiana State University in 1984
and completed her Ph.D. in 1988. During this time she worked on clavicipitaceous
fungal endophytes of grasses and sedges, particularly an association between
the fungus, Balansia cyperi Edg. and the major agricultural weed pest,
purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus L.). As part of her dissertation
research curriculum, Mary conducted studies that included a mycological
examination of Balansia cyperi L., an ecological study on the effect
of the fungus on growth and reproduction of purple nutsedge, a biochemical
examination and analyses of the fungitoxic effects on other fungal pathogens
of the ergot alkaloids produced both in vivo and in vitro by the fungus,
and the effects of the fungus on palatability of the sedge to insect herbivores.
She wrote and published from this work three journal articles and presented
four talks at professional meetings. Upon graduation, Mary received
the C.W. Edgerton Award for the Outstanding Graduate Student in Botany
and received a postdoctoral fellowship at the USDA Southern Regional Research
Center in molecular biology working on plant fungal pathogens. While her
background is varied, her basic foundations in mycology, host/parasite
relationships, and molecular biology give her a unique perspective for
her resumed research career on the Microsporidia and their role as opportunistic
disease organisms, particularly as these organisms have recently been recognized
as probable members of the kingdom Fungi.
Back to Mycology
at LSU
28 November 2001