Anne Pringle

Anne Pringle is an American mycologist and the L&S Mary Herman Rubinstein and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Botany at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is known for her work examining ecology and evolution using fungi as model organisms . Pringle was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2025.

Education and career Pringle received an A.B. from the University of Chicago in 1993. In 2001 she earned her Ph.D. from Duke University where her studies were in botany. Following her PhD. she was a fellow at the University of California, Berkeley until she joined the faculty at Harvard University. In 2015 Pringle moved to the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she was promoted to professor in 2017. As of 2025, she is the Letters & Science Mary Herman Rubinstein Professor and the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Botany.

Research Pringle's early research examined diversity in arbuscular mycorrhiza, a fungus that lives in close association with plants. She has examined the distribution of fungus including a human pathogenic fungus, ectomycorrhizal fungus that live with plants, and lichens that grow on tombstones. Her research includes investigations into how fungal species move in the environment. Pringle also participates in science events to promote knowledge about fungi, shares her knowledge about fungus with children's newspapers, and talks with the public on whiskey fungus, by-product of alcohol distilling.

Selected publications

Awards and honors In 2018 Pringle was named a fellow of the Mycological Society of America.