John (Jack) Murphy, Ph.D.
Lecturer
My dissertation focused on the population biology and ecology of two species of mushrooms, and I know quite a lot about fungi, but my main interest has always been in the diversity , interconnectedness and conservation of all living things. I spent two years as a postdoctoral research associate at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, documenting the surprisingly high diversity of mushroom species in the oak-savannah remnants in the Chicago region. While teaching in the deserts of eastern California at Deep Springs College, I temporarily turned my interest from toadstools to toads, and helped estimate the total population of the world’s most narrowly distributed toad, Bufo exsul. I have taught beginning and advanced courses in Biology, Botany, Conservation Biology, and Environmental Studies at Deep Springs College, Linfield College, College of the Redwoods, and, now, my alma mater, Humboldt. I thoroughly enjoy teaching in a location so beautiful and with students, faculty and staff so eager to understand and protect it.
Education
Deep Springs College
Humboldt State University: B.S. in Environmental Biology
Virginia Tech: M.S., Ph.D. in Biology.
Courses Taught
ESM 108 - Environmental Science & Climate Change
ESM 230 – Environmental Methods
ESM 303L - Applied Natural History and Ecology lab
ESM 308 - Ecotopia
BOT 105 – General Botany Lab
Publications
Murphy, J.F. 2005. Field key to the marasmioid fungi in the Pacific Northwest. Keys of the Pacific Northwest Key Council.
Murphy, J.F. 2004. “Temporal and spatial variation in the spore rain of Gymnopus subnudus measured by the spore trap method.” In: Fungi in Forest Systems. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Gardens, Vol. 89.
Murphy, JF, D Becker, and E Simandle. 2002. “Population monitoring and conservation of the black Toad Bufo exsul.” Southwestern Naturalist 48(1):54-60.
Leacock, PR, GM Mueller, DP Lewis, and JF Murphy. 1999. “Utilizing foray records to document fungal diversity across North America.” McIlvainea 14(1):88-92.
Schmit, JP, JF Murphy, and G Mueller. 1999. Macrofungal species diversity of a temperate oak forest: a test of species richness estimators. Canadian Journal of Botany 77:1014-1027.
Murphy, JF. 1997. “Intersterility groups in Collybia subnuda.” Mycologia 89(4): 566-577.
Murphy, JF, and OK Miller, Jr. 1997. “Diversity and local distribution of mating alleles in Marasmiellus praeacutus and Collybia subnuda (Basidiomycetes, Agaricales).” Canadian Journal of Botany 75: 8-17.
Murphy, JF. 1996. “Fungal inventories - a status report and exhortation.” McIlvainea 12 (2): 75-88.
Murphy, JF. “Taxon of the Month.” A series published in the monthly newsletter of the Illinois Mycological Association.
Murphy, JF, TJ Volk, TJ Leonard and D Derouen. Revised for 1996. Mycology: Laboratory Manual to accompany Botany\Plant Pathology 332. UW Madison.
Murphy, JF, and OK Miller, Jr. 1994. “Mycorrhizal syntheses with Alnus serrulata (Ait.) Willd.” Castanea 59(2): 156-166.
Murphy, JF, and OK Miller, Jr. 1993. “The population biology of two litter decomposing agarics on a southern Appalachian mountain.” Mycologia 85(5):769-776
