A.S. in Biology, Lincoln Land Community College, Springfield, IL
B.S. in Botany, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL
M.S. in Biological Sciences, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL
Ph.D. in Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL

Grants:

2000 American Society of Plant Taxonomists Graduate Student Grant for fieldwork in Texas, $500.

2001 The Explorers Club Exploration Fund Grant for graduate research for fieldwork in Ecuador, $1200.

2001-2003 National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant for Phylogenetic studies in the Lasiosphaeriaceae (Fungi, Ascomycetes, Sordariales), $9,985.

University of Illinois at Chicago Provost Award for fieldwork in France, $1795

Awards:

Illinois State Academy of Science Best Student Paper Award in Botany for paper presentation, 90th Annual Illinois State Academy of Science Meeting, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL.

University of Illinois at Chicago Travel Award for travel to annual Mycological Society of America meeting, St. Louis, MO.

American Society of Plant Taxonomists Graduate Student Research Award for Ph.D. dissertation research project, University of Illinois at Chicago and Field Museum.

Mycological Society of America Student Mentor Travel Award in honour of E.S. Luttrell for travel to annual Mycological Society of America meeting, Burlington, VT.

The Explorers Club Graduate Student Grant for fieldwork in Ecuador.

National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant for Phylogenetic studies in the Lasiosphaeriaceae (Fungi, Ascomycetes, Sordariales).

Myron P. Backus Graduate Fellowship, Mycological Society of America.

MSA Graduate Research Prize for paper on "The use of multi-gene phylogenies and morphology in establishing species boundaries in the Lasiosphaeria ovina (Lasiosphaeriaceae, Sordariales, Ascomycetes) species complex".

Lester Armour Graduate Fellowship, The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL

Publications:

Miller, A.N. and A.S. Methven. 2000. Biological species concepts in North American populations of Lentinellus. Mycologia 92(4): 792–800.

Miller, A.N. and S.M. Huhndorf. 2001. Neotropical Ascomycetes 10. New and interesting Cercophora species. Sydowia 53(2): 211–226.

Miller, A.N., T. Læssøe, P. Roberts, and K. Robinson. 2003. Krieglsteinera lasiosphaeriae: a mycoparasite on Lasiosphaeria ovina new to Britain, Norway, Russia and the USA. Mycologist 17(1): 12–13.

Miller, A.N., T. Læssøe, and S.M. Huhndorf. 2003. Neotropical Ascomycetes 11. Diamantinia citrina gen. and sp. nov. from Brazil. Sydowia 55(1): 93–98.

Huhndorf, S.M., F.A. Fernández, A.N. Miller, and D.J. Lodge. 2003. Neotropical Ascomycetes 12. Mirannulata samuelsii gen. et sp. nov. and M. costaricensis sp. nov., new taxa from the Caribbean and elsewhere. Sydowia 55(2): 172–180.

Miller, A.N. 2003. A reinterpretation of the pseudo-bombardioid ascomal wall in taxa in the Lasiosphaeriaceae. Sydowia 55(2): 267–273.

Guzmán-Dávalos, L., G.M. Mueller, J. Cifuentes, A.N. Miller, and A. Santerre. 2003. Traditional infrageneric classification of Gymnopilus is not supported by ribosomal DNA sequence data. Mycologia 95(6): in press.

Huhndorf, S.M., A.N. Miller, and F.A. Fernández. 2004. Molecular systematics of the Sordariales: the order and the family Lasiosphaeriaceae redefined. Mycologia 96: in press.

Miller, A.N. and S.M. Huhndorf. 2004. A natural classification of Lasiosphaeria based on rDNA sequences. Mycological Research 108: In press.

Miller, A.N. and S.M. Huhndorf. 2004. Multi-gene phylogenies indicate ascomal wall morphology is a better predictor of phylogenetic relationships than ascospore morphology in the Sordariales. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, In review.

Research Interests:

I am interested in the systematics of the higher fungi (Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes), particularly in how their phylogenetic relationships relate to current classifications. I am also interested in fungal biodiversity, especially in the Neotropics, and in species concepts in fungi.

Previous Research:

As a graduate student, I participated in a NSF-funded PEET program entitled "Studies in the Lasiosphaeriaceae. Monographs of two key genera and a family level phylogeny." I investigated the phylogenetic relationships of taxa at several different taxonomic levels from the ordinal-level to the species-level using one or more of the following nuclear genes: ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), 28S ribosomal large subunit (LSU), Beta-tubulin, and ribosomal polymerase II subunit 2 (RPB2). Maximum parsimony and Bayesian analyses revealed that the Sordariales, Lasiosphaeriaceae, and Lasiosphaeria were polyphyletic as currently circumscribed. The Sordariales and Lasiosphaeria were more narrowly defined and three new genera, Echinosphaeria, Hilberina, and Immersiella, were erected based on molecular data. Taxa were further corroborated by morphological data in possessing a unique combination of morphological characters primarily involving those of the ascomatal walls and ascospores. While ascospore morphology is useful for placing taxa in the Sordariales, ascomal wall morphology is shown to be a better predictor of generic relationships within the Sordariales. Finally, species boundaries were delimited for four of the five morphospecies currently included in Lasiosphaeria.

Current Research:

I am currently a post-doctoral research associate participating in another NSF-funded PEET grant entitled "Studies in the Lasiosphaeriaceae II: Monograph of Podospora and Phylogeny of the Lasiosphaeria/Sordariaceae Group (Fungi, Ascomycetes, Sordariales)". We are continuing our investigations of the phylogenetic relationships of taxa in the Sordariales, with emphasis on the systematics of Podospora.

For more information, please check out the Lasiosphaeriaceae PEET website.

Current Position:

www.life.uiuc.edu/plantbio/PlantBioWeb/FacultyPages/Miller.html