Stalker was surprised and saddened to hear about the closure of the mushroom unit research group at HRI Warwick.
A concerned mushroom industry source contacted Stalker to say: “HRI Warwick have made redundancies and closed the mushroom unit at Warwick University. My contact told me that all the mushroom researchers such as Mike Challen, Kerry Burton, Dan Eastwood, et al had all been made redundant.
It is of huge concern to us as these researchers were valuable and gave a lot to the mushroom community. Dr Challen for example was the person behind the recent publication of the mushroom genome. “ The Mushroom People contacted Dr Rosemary Collier, the newly appointed director of the School of Life Sciences, at the University of Warwick,.
Dr Collier was able to confirm the news. “I'm afraid that all the people with skills in mushroom research are moving on. Ralph Noble may be continuing to do some work on mushrooms.”
The unit closure is without doubt bad news for the mushroom industry in the UK, and actually for the worldwide mushroom industry, as the research emanating from HRI was world class and very important to the mushroom industry globally.
