Source: NC A&T COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, 10/25/21


Two of N.C. A&T’s researchers brought their skills to a regional audience this week as members of TEDxGreensboro’s 2021 speaker panel.

Omoanghe Isikhuemhen, Ph.D., a professor of mushroom science and fungal biotechnology in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences spoke live during the day-long TED presentation.

TED talks – technology, entertainment and design – offer a day-long series of informative speakers and artistic performances. Greensboro’s event is designed to showcase the spectrum of people and ideas being generated in Greensboro, ranging from science to business to global issues.

“Dr. Omon” centers his research primarily the study of mushrooms and truffles. A respected specialist in shitake cultivation who has helped North Carolina farmers get into mushroom cultivation, Isikhuemhen have succeeded in producing truffles, a high-dollar, notoriously finicky edible fungus that grows underground, for a farmer in Warren County, catching the industry’s attention worldwide in 2019.

Now, he and his team are working to build on that success.

“It’s our goal that North Carolina will become the largest truffle-producing state in the nation,” Isikhuemhen said.