E. Toby Kiers
Demonstrated that mycorrhizal fungi behave as strategic traders, using quantum-dot-tagged phosphorus to visualize nutrient exchange with plant roots in real time.
The record
- Standing
- active practice
- Based
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; SPUN (co-founder, executive director) · Netherlands
- Focus area
- Mycorrhizal Economics
- Works on
- biological markets, quantum-dot phosphorus tracking, reciprocal rewards, mycorrhizal network mapping, underground biodiversity.
Standing is this studio’s placement of the work, not a ranking of the person, and it is the one line here that is a judgement rather than a cited fact.
The work
Evolutionary biologist and University Research Chair in Mutualistic Interactions at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (PhD, UC Davis, 2005). Her 2011 Science paper showed fungi allocate phosphorus to roots that deliver more carbon, launching the ‘biological markets’ view of the symbiosis. Co-founder and executive director of SPUN, mapping mycorrhizal networks globally. Awarded the 2026 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.
Where to read them
- E. Toby Kiers — lab or personal site
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam — the organisation
- Kiers et al. (2011) Reciprocal rewards stabilize cooperation in the mycorrhizal symbiosis, Science
- Whiteside et al. (2019) mycorrhizal fungi respond to resource inequality, Current Biology
- van ‘t Padje et al. (2021) quantum-dot tagged phosphorus
- SPUN
Sources for this record
Corrections
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