Urmas Kõljalg

Biography

Urmas Kõljalg is Professor of Mycology and Head of the Chair of Mycology at the University of Tartu, Estonia. His research focuses on fungal biodiversity, taxonomy, and the integration of molecular data with biological collections to advance species discovery and communication. He is a founding developer of the UNITE database and Species Hypotheses system, which provides persistent identifiers for fungi and other eukaryotes based on DNA sequence data, enabling the mobilisation of both historical collections and environmental sequencing data globally. Urmas Kõljalg’s work bridges legacy specimen collections, modern sequencing technologies, and biodiversity informatics infrastructures. He has played a leading role in developing data standards, workflows, and platforms that support FAIR sharing of fungal data across fungaria, molecular repositories, and global biodiversity networks. His research aims to ensure that collections remain a living resource for addressing fundamental questions in ecology, evolution, and global change in the era of big data and AI-driven science.