The MFIT Workshop will be held February 27-29, 2024 and April 9-11, 2024 and is available to NPDN members, partners, and colleagues. The MFIT Workshops will be held in-person at the USDA Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory, Building 10A in Beltsville, Maryland, over three full days. The instructors decided to offer two identical workshops to give participants a couple options.
The workshops are supported by the USDA and the Plant Protection Act 7721 funding, which means diagnosticians do not need to find funding to participate…we did that for you! All workshop materials and travel expenses are covered by this funding. The planning team requested another round of funding through PPA 7721, so if you can’t attend in 2023, keep your fingers crossed for possible 2024 workshops!
The instructors are Megan Romberg and John McKemy of USDA-APHIS-PPQ, with content support, by Karen Rane of the University of Maryland. Megan has taught several fungal identification workshops at NPDN National Meetings. The new MFIT Workshop will build on topics taught at the National Meeting workshops but will also be suitable for early-career professionals who have not attended previous trainings.
Workshop Description
The MFIT Workshop will consist of lectures and hands-on activities. Participants will learn about fungi in the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, learning precise terms for specific characters, and increasing familiarity with reading and understanding species descriptions ranging from those written 100 years ago to the present. Participants will learn techniques and access literature that may be unfamiliar and, in some cases, difficult to obtain. Approximately 20 hours of the 3-day workshop will focus on interactive, hands-on activities. The hands-on portion will include directed examination of samples from both Phyla under the dissecting and compound microscopes, learning targeted isolation techniques using local fresh samples collected or maintained for the workshop. Holding the workshop at the USDA facility will allow participants to form relationships with PPQ staff which may guide future collaborations and facilitate open dialogue during emergency situations. The training provides participating diagnosticians access to the scientists who regularly see thousands of fungal pathogens across hundreds of host families and the ability to ask questions about specific characters that may be rare and benefit from group discussions.
Holding the workshop at the USDA facility will allow participants to form relationships with PPQ staff which may guide future collaborations and facilitate open dialogue during emergency situations. The training provides participating diagnosticians access to the scientists who regularly see thousands of fungal pathogens across hundreds of host families and the ability to ask questions about specific characters that may be rare and benefit from group discussions.
Agenda
A final agenda for the workshop will be made available soon. Please check this site frequently, we will post updates and other documents to the site as soon as they are available.
Registration
This workshop is now FULL, as of 10/13/23, and we are placing names on a wait list.
To register, provide you contact information and workshop date choice to Barb Riker at br347@cornell.edu and copy Karen Snover-Clift at kls13@cornell.edu. Registrations will be accepted in the order they are received. We have heard of a lot of interest in the workshops so please register soon, if you are interested. Please DO NOT make any travel arrangements until we contact you with approval to do so.
Travel and Reimbursement
Travel reimbursements must go to the institution and NOT to the participant. As always, there is no registration fee for attending any workshop(s) or for the meeting materials provided. The workshops are supported by a PPA 7721 Cooperative Agreement. Travelers will submit a letter, on their institution letterhead, simply listing their reimbursable travel expenses. A template is available on the workshop portal page. The reimbursement check will be made out and mailed to the institution.
MFIT Workshop Guidelines From Registration to Travel Reimbursement
Institution travel reimbursement request letter
