Ko-Hsuan Chen is an assistant research fellow at the Biodiversity Research Center in Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, whose work is devoted to studying fungal-plant symbiosis. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Life Science from National Taiwan Normal University and her Master’s in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from National Taiwan University. She then pursued her doctoral studies on fungal endophytes at Duke University, supervised by Dr. François Lutzoni. Her research integrated morphological, ecological, and evolutionary information to describe Phaeomoniellales, a new order in Ascomycota. This work demonstrated the evolutionary relevance and potential of fungi in various ecological niches, and it led to her interest in exploring the trophic transitioning of fungal endophytes in mosses, which an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant supported. Dr. Chen was a postdoctoral associate with Dr. Hui-Ling Liao at the University of Florida, focusing on grass leaf endophytes and pine mycorrhizae. Her current research team is exploring the diversity and ecology of endophytes in subtropical montane cloud forests. Dr. Chen is the lead author of ten publications and served as a reviewer for eleven journals, including the ISME journal, Mycological Progress, and Fungal Ecology. The Mycological Society of America (MSA) has been an important venue for Dr. Chen’s professional development. She has attended five MSA annual meetings between 2012 and 2021, receiving multiple awards from the society, including the MSA Graduate Fellowship and the WC Denison Mentor Student Travel Award.