Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed Abdel-Azeem

I am currently working as professor of microbiology (mycology) for Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University at Ismailia and mycologist with particular interest in the ecology, taxonomy, biology, and conservation of fungi, and my specialist interest is members of the phylum Ascomycota. My research includes isolation, identification and taxonomic assessments of these fungi with particular emphasis on those which produce bioactive materials from different ecological habitats.

I graduated from the Botany Department, Faculty of Science, University of Suez Canal in 1987 with an honors degree graded as excellent. In 1997, I obtained my master’s degree with a dissertation on cytogenetical and biological studies of fungus Chaetomiopsis dinae, and my PhD thesis, awarded in 2003, focused on the ecology, distribution, and substratum preferences of the Ascomycota in Egypt. In 2010, I published a full review of the history of mycology in Egypt, together with a checklist of 2281 species of fungi for the country, and an assessment of future perspectives for mycology in Egypt. Until that review, information about fungi from Egypt had been fragmentary and highly dispersed in many often obscure and difficult to obtain publications. The checklist greatly increased the number of fungi recorded from the country and, significantly, is the first fully documented checklist of fungi for any country in the Arabic speaking world.

Most recently I have become interested in the effect of climate change on fungi, especially the impacts of ultraviolet light on leaf and soil fungi. For my post-doctoral research, I got EOL fellow in 2011 and used my experience in taxonomy, ecology, biology, and conservation of fungi to document the Egyptian Ascomycota by establishing 265 EOL-compatible web pages, each relating to a different non-lichen-forming ascomycete species known to occur in Egypt.

I have the necessary vision combined with proven experience leading and successfully completing complex and ambitious projects. I founded and now lead the Arab Society for Fungal Conservation [www.fungiofegypt.com/ASFC.html], which represents the International Society for Fungal Conservation regionally, and Executive Committee member of International Mycological Association (IMA). I contributed the Egyptian component for fungi in the Encyclopedia of Life. I am a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Specialist Group for Cup Fungi, Truffles and their Allies and IUCN Commission on Education and Communication.

I have authored publications about fungal conservation and organized international meetings on the subject. I have a mycology PhD and tenure as a full Professor of Mycology at Suez Canal University.