Dr. Hazal Kandemir is a fungal taxonomist who is interested in the molecular investigation of the evolutionary traits within fungi. She also contributes to the field by describing novel fungi and actively participating in the improvement of fungal nomenclature.

More information about Hazal Kandemir

Professional experience

Hazal completed her PhD in 2022 in the Center of Expertise in Mycology of Radboud University Medical Center/CWZ Hospital, focusing on the ecology, phylogeny, and taxonomy of medically important fungi that are capable of degrading keratin. After her PhD, she did a post-doc at the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in a large national project called ARISE. In this project, she worked on building a database and molecular identification tools for Dutch soil fungi. She was also actively involved in an international Mycobiomics project that explores the mycological biodiversity for beneficial secondary metabolites and potential biocontrol agents, as well as the ecology and taxonomy of fungi. As a part of this project, she identified novel soil fungi and investigated the fungal diversity in different soil ecosystems in South Africa.

Besides her research, Hazal enjoys organizing scientific events. She served as convener of the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology (ISHAM) Onygenales Working Group to bring scientists working on the same research topic together. Additionally, she served as a representative on the KNAW PhD and Postdocs Board to organize seminars, workshops, and social events for the PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers.

Research topic

Since October 2024, she works as a postdoctoral researcher to identify and measure relevant traits in soil fungi for important soil functions, in the Department of Environmental Biology, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML).