Dept. de Ciências Naturais (DCN)
Universidade Regional de Blumenau - FURB
Cx.P. 1507
89010-971
Blumenau, SC, Brazil

Email: sturmer@furb.br

B.S., Biology, 1991,
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil

Ph.D., 1998, West Virginia University

I started my career with mycorrhizal fungi in 1988 while in the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil, working in the lab of Dr. Margarida Mendonça. I was interested in mycorrhizal fungi associated with fruit crops system, sand dunes and tropical Atlantic forest. My main focus was on the sand dunes system: I assessed seasonal variation of AMF species diversity based on spore counts in a semi-fixed dune dominated by the grass Spartina ciliata.

I came to WVU in 1993 to study the systematics of glomalean fungi. My Ph.D. research focused on the assessment of glomalean fungi diversity at three distinct levels. At the morphological level, I was interested in interpreting characters based on comparative developmental patterns. While at WVU, I focused on Glomus and Acaulospora. I also assessed fungal community structure in soils from different ecosystems and geographic locations. My approach was to characterize species in successive pot trap culture cycles. A third project involved isolating all fungi in several mycorrhizal communities, establishing them in monospecific cultures, and then assessing their physiological diversity measured by growth benefit on the assay host, soybean. As part of my responsibility to the lab, I compiled a biogeographic database from published papers, species descriptions and INVAM acessions.

I am now back in Brazil teaching and carrying out research at the Universidade Regional de Blumenau.

Hobbies and interests

My favorite hobby is to go to beach and to go camping. At home, I play acoustic guitar, but only some Brazilian songs. I have a close affinity for the Brazilian "gaucho" culture, and I particularly like their music (a lot of acoustic guitar and accordian). Soccer is my number one sport (of course, I am Brazilian!!!) but now I am learning racquetball. I really like to read, in particular science fiction books and comic books (when I am in an especially crazy mood!).