Amy Y. Rossman

{{Short description|American mycologist (1946- )}} '''Amy Yarnell Rossman''' (born September 20, 1946, in [[Spokane, Washington]]) is an American mycologist and a leading expert in identifying fungi.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Peabody, Erin K.|publisher=Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture|title=Seeds of Knowledge. New online guide helps identify the world's seeds and fruits|date=March 2007|journal=Agricultural Research Magazine|url=https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/2007/mar/seeds}}</ref>

==Biography== Born in Spokane, Amy Rossman moved with her family, when she was six months old, to [[Portland, Oregon]], and considers herself to be a native Oregonian.<ref name=interview>{{cite web|title=Amy Rossman: An Oral History for Mycology|date=July 30, 2018|publisher=Dustin Howard|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJe54E1Gv4E}} (interview by Meredith Blackwell at the 11th International Mycology Congress in San Juan Puerto Rico on July 20th, 2018)</ref> Rossman graduated with a B.A. in [[biology]] from [[Grinnell College]] in 1968.<ref name=scientists>{{cite book|title=American Men and Women of Science|page=312|year=1986|edition=16th|volume=VI Q-S|isbn=0-8352-2228-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5QeAAAAMAAJ&q=amy+yarnell+rossman,+grinnell}}</ref> She received her Ph.D. in mycology in 1975 from [[Oregon State University]] (OSU). Her Ph.D. thesis ''The genus Ophionectria (Ascomycetes, Hypocreales)'' was supervised by William C. Denison (1929–2005).<ref>{{cite web|website=Oregon State University|author=Rossman, Amy Y.|title=The genus Ophionectria (Ascomycetes, Hypocreales)|year=1975|url=https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/6d570075k}} (library catalog entry for doctoral dissertation)</ref> As a graduate student she collected fungi in June 1970 in [[Puerto Rico]]'s [[El Yunque National Forest]] and in [[Dominica]] and then in January 1971 in [[Jamaica]].<ref name=interview/> She held a teaching fellowship in mycology from 1978 to 1978 at [[Cornell University]]. From 1979 to 1980 she was a research associate in botany at [[New York Botanical Garden]] (NYBG).<ref name=scientists/> During the years from 1978 to 1980 she collected [[fungi]] in the [[neotropics]].<ref name=GlobalPlants>{{cite web|website=JSTOR Global Plants|title=Rossman, Amy Y. (1946-)|url=https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000062872}}</ref> From 1980 to 1983 she worked as a mycologist for the [[United States Department of Agriculture|USDA]]'s [[Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service]]. In 1983 she became a mycologist for the USDA's [[Agricultural Research Service]]<ref name=scientists/> and was appointed director of the [[U.S. National Fungus Collections]].<ref>{{cite web|title=U.S. National Fungus Collections — History|website=Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory: Beltsville, MD, USDA Agricultural Research Service|url=https://www.ars.usda.gov/northeast-area/beltsville-md-barc/beltsville-agricultural-research-center/mycology-and-nematology-genetic-diversity-and-biology-laboratory/docs/us-national-fungus-collections-bpi/us-national-fungus-collections-history/}}</ref> <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/systematics/usfungu.htm|title=U.S. National Fungus Collections|website=Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051227093610/http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/systematics/usfungu.htm |archive-date=2005-12-27 }}</ref> In the late 1980s the Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory (SBML) was formed and she was appointed the SBML's research leader.<ref>{{cite book|author=Miller, D.R.|author2=Rossman, A.Y.|author3=Kirkbride, J.|year=1989|chapter=Systematics, diversity, and germplasm|editor=Knutson, L.V.|editor2=Stoner, A.K.|title=Biotic Diversity and Germplasm Preservation, Global Imperatives. Beltsville Symposia in Agricultural Research|volume=13|pages=3–11 |publisher=Springer|location=Dordrecht|doi=10.1007/978-94-009-2333-1_1 |isbn=978-94-010-7549-7 |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2333-1_1}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.agclassroom.org/teen/ars_pdf/biology/2004/03mycologists.pdf|title=Mycologists Help Guard U.S. Borders|journal=Agricultural Research|date=March 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304234102/http://www.agclassroom.org/teen/ars_pdf/biology/2004/03mycologists.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-04 }}</ref>

In [[French Guiana]] on a 1986 expedition sponsored by the Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield Program, Rossman met the French botanist Christian P. Feuillet.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Funk, Vicki A.|title=Focus on Research Associates: The Passion of Christian Feuillet|journal=Plant Press: A Quarterly Newsletter from the Botany Department (NMNH) and the U.S. National Herbarium|volume=12|issue=3|date=July 2009|url=https://nmnh.typepad.com/the_plant_press/2009/07/plant-press-2009-vol-12-issue-3-4.html}}</ref> They married in [[King County, Washington]], on 4 September 1988. They have a daughter.<ref name=interview/>

In 1996 Rossman told the science journalist Carol Kaesuk Yoon that for some types of organisms, such as [[microfungi]], New York state's forests are almost as unexplored as the [[tropical forest]]s.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9501E2D91538F936A35752C1A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1|title=Forget the Tropics, Pharmaceuticals May Lie in Nearby Woods|author=Yoon, Carol Kaesuk|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=November 5, 1996}}</ref> Rossman, with coauthor [[David Leslie Hawksworth|David L. Hawksworth]], suggested that about 1.4 million fungal species were undescribed as of 1997.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Hawksworth, David L.|author2=Rossman, Amy Y.|title=Where are all the undescribed fungi?|journal=Phytopathology|volume=87|issue=9|year=1997|pages=888–891|doi=10.1094/PHYTO.1997.87.9.888 |pmid=18945058 |bibcode=1997PhPat..87..888H |url=https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1094/PHYTO.1997.87.9.888|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In 2009 Rossman became the research leader of the Systematic Mycology and Microbiology Laboratory (SMML) in [[Beltsville, Maryland]]. She has also been director and [[curator]] of the [[U.S. National Fungus Collections]] (BPI — USDA Bureau of Plant Industry), which are located at the SMML. The SMML and the U.S. National Fungus Collections are part of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service. She led research on ''[[Hypocreales]]'' (particularly ''[[Calonectria]]'', ''[[Nectria]]'' and ''[[Ophionectria]]''), ''[[Diaporthales]]'' and other [[microfungi]] that cause [[plant diseases]]. She made important collections, not only with her husband, but also with [[Laurence Skog]] and Gary Joseph Samuels.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rossman, Amy Y.|website=Index of Botanists, Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries|url=https://kiki.huh.harvard.edu/databases/botanist_search.php?id=40751}}</ref> Together with David F. Farr, she manages a [[database]] containing information about the [[Herbarium|fungal specimen]]s in the U.S. National Fungus Collections. They also maintain a database with data on fungi that have plants as [[host (biology)|host]]s. She has contributed extensively to the [[Index Fungorum]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Rossman, Amy|title=Databases at the U.S. National Fungus Collections (BPI)|pages=1–2|url=http://www.ima-mycology.org/sites/default/files/downloads/mycoafricavol1.pdf|journal=MycoAfrica, Newsletter of the African Mycological Association|volume=1|issue=1|date=March 2007}}</ref>

Rossman retired in 2014 from her USDA position. In retirement she has lived in [[Corvallis, Oregon]], where she has an office at [[Oregon State University]].<ref name=interview/> She is on the editorial board of the mycological journal ''[[Studies in Mycology]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Editorial Board|website=Studies in Mycology|url=https://studiesinmycology.org/index.php/editorial-board}}</ref>

She was elected in 2004 a Fellow of the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] (AAAS).<ref>{{cite web|title=Historic Fellows|website=American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)|url=https://www.aaas.org/fellows/historic}}</ref>

==Books== * {{cite book|title=The phragmosporous species of Nectria and related genera: (Calonectria, Ophionectria, Paranectria, Scoleconectria, and Trichonectria)|author=Rossman, Amy Y.|location=Kew, Surrey, England|publisher=Commonwealth Mycological Institute|year=1983|postscript=; 164 pages, illustrated|series=Mycological papers, no. 150|lccn=83170359}} * {{cite book|title=A literature guide for the identification of plant pathogenic fungi|author=Rossman, Amy Y.|author2=Palm, Mary E.|author3=Spielman, Linda J.|location=St. Paul, Minnesota|publisher=American Phytopathological Society|year=1987|isbn=0890540802|postscript=; written in cooperation with David F. Farr; pbk, 252 pages|series=Contributions from the U.S. National Fungus Collections, no. 1|lccn=87070764}} * {{cite book|title=Scientific and common names of 7,000 vascular plants in the United States|author=Brako, Lois|author2=Rossman, Amy Y.|author3=Farr, David F.|location=St. Paul, Minnesota|publisher=APS Press|year=1995|postscript=; iii+295 pages|isbn=089054171X|lccn=94079381}} * {{cite book|editor=Hoagland, K. Elaine|editor2=Rossman, Amy Y.|postscript=; xi+347 pages, illustrated|title=Global genetic resources: access, ownership, and intellectual property rights (Invited papers presented at a symposium held May 19-22, 1996 at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, Maryland, sponsored by U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, and the Association of Systematics Collections)|series=Beltsville symposia in agricultural research, no. 21|year=1997|lccn=97018495}}<ref>{{cite journal|title=Book review of ''Global Genetic Resources: Access, Ownership and Intellectual Property Rights. Beltsville Symposia in Agricultural Research 21'', edited by K. Elaine Hoagland and Amy Y. Rossman|author=Barrett, John A.|journal=Environmental Conservation|volume=25|issue=1|date=March 1998|page=83|doi=10.1017/S0376892998210125|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environmental-conservation/article/abs/global-genetic-resources-access-ownership-and-intellectual-property-rights-beltsville-symposia-in-agricultural-research-21-edited-by-k-elaine-hoaglands-amy-y-rossman-xi-347-pp-15-23-2-cm-isbn-0-942924-19-3-paperback-us-4500-washington-dc-usa-association-of-systematics-associations-1997/487F127B0B8C9FD25D5611EBB6523157|url-access=subscription}}</ref> * {{cite book|editor=Rossman, Amy Y.|editor2=Tulloss, Rodham E.|editor3=O'Dell, Thomas E.|editor4=Thorn, R. Greg|title=Protocols for an all taxa biodiversity inventory of fungi in a Costa Rican conservation area|location=Boone, N.C.|publisher=Parkway Publishers|postscript=; with a foreword by Daniel H. Janzen & Winnie Hallwachs; xvii+195 pages, illustrated|isbn=1887905057|year=1998|lccn=97044635}}

==References== <references/>

==External links== * {{cite web|url=https://www.ars.usda.gov/people-locations/publications/?person-id=4837|title=list of publications with Amy Y. Rossman as author or coauthor, summaries & abstracts|website=Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061003044632/http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/people/publications.htm?personid=4837 |archive-date=2006-10-03 }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rossman, Amy Y.}} [[Category:1946 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:American mycologists]] [[Category:20th-century American women scientists]] [[Category:21st-century American women scientists]] [[Category:Women mycologists]] [[Category:Grinnell College alumni]] [[Category:Oregon State University alumni]] [[Category:United States Department of Agriculture people]] [[Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science]]