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Assistant Professor (Conservation Mycology)
Faculty of Environmental & Forest Biology (EFB)

350 Illick Hall
1 Forestry Drive
Syracuse, NY 13210

Phone 315 470 6791
E-mail alexw@esf.edu

 

 

EDUCATION
Ph.D. 1997- University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and The Natural History Museum, London, UK

Thesis: Comparative Biological and Taxonomic Studies on Tropical and Temperate Laboulbeniales (Fungi, Ascomycota).

B.Sc. 1986- University of Bradford, UK

Environmental Science (Ecology Specialization) Upper Second Class degree with Honours.

RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONALEXPERIENCE

April 1997-December 1998: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Louisiana State University, Department of Biological Sciences.

September 1993-March 1997: Junior Research Fellow, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Department of Biological and Nutritional Sciences and The Natural History Museum, Biodiversity Division, Department of Entomology.

May 1990-September1993: Senior Nature Conservation Manager, Industry Nature Conservation Association (Cleveland, UK).

August 1988-April 1990: Senior Ecologist and Conservation Officer, Royal Society for Nature Conservation, Wildlife Trust (Cleveland).

August 1987-July 1988: Scientific Officer, Nature Conservancy Council.

August 1986-July 1987: Scientific Survey Team Leader, Nature Conservancy Council.


TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Mycology (EFB 440/640), College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Diversity of Plants (EFB 326), College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Introductory Microbiology (BIO 345), Louisiana State University

Fungal Ecology and Conservation, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

AWARDS

My doctoral thesis "Comparative Biological and Taxonomic Studies on Tropical and Temperate Laboulbeniales (Fungi, Ascomycetes)" was awarded the Irene Manton Prize by the Linnean Society of London for the best Ph.D. in botany from any of the UK Universities during 1997.

Grant Applications:

NSF Biotic Surveys and Inventories Program - Vanishing Microbes: A Search for Microbial Diversity in Receding Glaciers. Funds requested $604,113. Submitted November 2000. Decision pending.

NSF Biotic Surveys and Inventories Program - Laboulbeniales of New Zealand. Funds requested $225,000. Submitted November 1998. Funded starting January 1st 2000 ($164,000).

NSF Systematics Program - Phylogeny of Laboulbeniales. Proposal jointly conceived and developed by Professor M. Blackwell and A. Weir. Funds requested: $486,018. Submitted June 1996. Funded ($195,000).

Leverhulme Trust, London, UK - Species-richness patterns and host-parasite interactions in the Laboulbeniales (Fungi, Ascomycetes). Proposal entirely conceived and developed by A.Weir. Funds requested: $100,000 (equivalent). Submitted November 1992. Funded in total.

Natural Environment Research Council, UK - Host-parasite interactions and specificity in the insect-habiting fungi of the Laboulbeniales: implications for phylogeny and estimates of species numbers. Proposal entirely conceived and developed by A.Weir. $150,000 (equivalent). Submitted July 1992. Unfunded

PUBLICATIONS

Weir, A. (1992). A plea for help with a flora of Laboulbeniales (Fungi, Ascomycotina) for Great Britain and Ireland. Coleopterist 1(3): 14-15.

Weir, A. (1993). Rare and interesting Laboulbeniales on Sudanese Coleoptera.
Mycological Research 97: 509-512.

Weir, A. and G. W. Beakes (1993). New British Laboulbeniales. Mycological Research 97: 1045-1055.

Weir, A. (1994). Further records of Laboulbeniales from collections of British Coleoptera. Mycological Research 98: 433-444.

Weir, A. and G. W. Beakes (1995). An introduction to the Laboulbeniales: a fascinating group of entomogenous fungi. Mycologist 9: 6-10.

Weir, A. (1995). Two new species of Ilyomyces. Mycological Research 99: 789-792.

Weir, A. and W. Rossi (1995). Laboulbeniales parasitic on British Diptera. Mycological Research 99: 841-849.

Weir, A. (1996). A preliminary host-parasite checklist of British Laboulbeniales.
The Entomologist 115: 50-58. Royal Entomological Society of London.

Rossi, W. and A. Weir (1996). New species of Laboulbeniales (Fungi, Ascomycetes) from Sulawesi, Indonesia. Canadian Journal of Botany 74: 77-83.

Weir, A. and G. W. Beakes (1996). Correlative light- and scanning electron microscope studies on the developmental morphology of Hesperomyces virescens
Mycologia 88(5): 677-693.

Rossi, W. and Weir, A. (1997a). Laboulbenia pterostichi and its allies.
Mycological Research 101: 129-134.

Weir, A. and P.M. Hammond (1997b). Laboulbeniales on beetles: host utilization patterns and species richness of the parasites. Biodiversity and Conservation 6: 701-719.

Rossi, W. and A. Weir (1997b). New and interesting Laboulbeniales from New Zealand. Canadian Journal of Botany 75: 791-798.

Weir, A. (1998). Notes on the Laboulbeniales of Sulawesi. The genus Rickia.
Mycological Research 102: 327-343.

Rossi, W. and A. Weir (1998). Triainomyces, a new genus of Laboulbeniales on the pill-millipede, Procyliosoma tuberculatum from New Zealand. Mycologia 90: 282-289.

Weir, A. and Rossi, W. (2001). New and interesting Bolivian Laboulbeniales.
Mycologia 93: 170-179.

Weir, A. (in press). Histeridomyces tishechkinii sp. nov., a new species of
Laboulbeniales (Ascomycetes) from New Zealand. Mycotaxon (accepted November
2000).

Weir, A. and Blackwell, M. (in press). Extraction and PCR amplification of DNA
from minute ectoparasitic fungi. Mycologia (accepted January 2001).

Weir, A. and Blackwell, M. (in press). On a branch excluded from pyrenomycetes:
Laboulbeniales are ascomycetes. Mycological Research (accepted January 2001)