Bryn Dentinger

Bryn Dentinger holds a joint position at the University of Utah as an Associate Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, and as the Curator of Mycology at the Natural History Museum of Utah. A native of Duluth, Minnesota, he received his undergraduate degree from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN in 2000 and his PhD in Plant Biology at the University of Minnesota in 2007. After two postdocs, one at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, and one at the University of Oregon, he held a position from 2010-2016 as a Senior Researcher, and later Head of Mycology at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London, UK.

His research combines fieldwork and genomic tools to understand the global diversity, distribution, and evolutionary history of fungi, particularly the diverse and species-rich mushrooms and allies. He is particularly interested in understanding the evolutionary radiation of the family Boletaceae, with a special interest in porcini diversity and evolution, and the co-evolutionary symbiosis between fungus-growing ants and their crop fungi.

His outreach activities have included media appearances on television and film, and he served on MSA’s Biodiversity Committee from 2013-2017.