Keith Seifert

Keith was born in Sudbury, Ontario Canada. He was introduced to mycology by Bryce Kendrick at the University of Waterloo and Ian D. Reid at the National Research Council in Saskatoon, then received his MSc in 1982 from the University of British Columbia with R.J. Bandoni, and his PhD in 1985 from the former Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures with Rob Samson. He worked as a researcher for Forintek Canada in Ottawa from 1986–1990, and then at Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada in Ottawa from 1990−2019. His expertise is the identification and classification of microscopic fungi producing toxins in crops and foods. Keith’s academic publications include >300 scientific papers and six books. He is best known for his work on the taxonomy of hyphomycetes, culminating in his 2011 book The Genera of Hyphomycetes (with Gareth Morgan-Jones, Walter Gams and Bryce Kendrick), his promotion of DNA barcoding in mycology, and his part in the retirement of dual nomenclature. Keith was the Chair of the International Commission of the Taxonomy of Fungi from 2000–2014, and President of the International Mycological Association from 2014–2018, and past president from 2018–2024. He served the MSA as a Councillor, as a member of the Culture Collection, Mycologia Memoirs and Nomenclature Committees, and as an Executive Editor of Mycologia from 2014–2018, where he was instrumental in negotiating the current publication arrangements for the journal. He was awarded the Alexopoulos Prize by the MSA in 1993, and was elected as a Fellow in 2013. Keith retired in 2019 and is now an adjunct professor at Ottawa’s Carleton University. His book The Hidden Kingdom of Fungi, written for general readers, was published in 2022 and was translated into Japanese and Spanish.