Jason Stajich is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology at University of California-Riverside. He earned his PhD in Genetics and Genomics at Duke University working on understanding genome evolution in Fungi focused on Cryptococcus and Coprinopsis. He completed a postdoc at the University of California Berkeley as a Miller Research Fellow working on genome evolution in Neurospora, Batrachochytrium, and Coccidioides. Jason has served on the Karling Lecture committee, as a MSA Councilor (2010-12; 2018-21), and a member of the MSA website committee. He is a C. J. Alexopoulos Award recipient, MSA Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, and American Academy of Microbiology (American Society for Microbiology) Fellow, Kavli Fellow, and a Fellow in the CIFAR Program Fungal Kingdom: Threats and Opportunities. His research explores the evolution of fungi using genomic sequencing and phylogenetic approaches with focus on chytrid and zygomycete lineages; microbiome and mycobiome interactions in plants and animals; population and comparative genomics of human pathogens; and ecology and diversity of fungi in arid lands. He has co-authored more than 200 published articles and contributes to public communication on fungal biology through social media on twitter. He has been a member of the Fungal Genetics Policy Committee, Neurospora Policy Committee, and co-chaired 2022 Gordon Conference on Cellular and Molecular Fungal Biology.