I am so proud to announce that former OEB Darwin Fellow Toby Kiers, whom I was honored to mentor for her brief time at UMass, is one of 22 people selected worldwide for a highly prestigious MacArthur Fellowship! These so-called “genius grants” provide $800,000 over five years, with no strings attached.
Toby studies the ecology and evolution of mutualisms using plant-fungal networks, and has been a Research Chair at the Vrije University in Amsterdam since 2014. Her work spans the range from testing theories of how mutualisms evolved to innovations in agricultural systems, and she has an impressive list of awards in many spheres. Toby also writes popular science articles and about women in science; you can check out her media here.