Toby Kiers Wins the Tyler Prize for Environmental Work

American mycologist Toby Kiers has received the Tyler Prize, also called the “Nobel of the Environment”, for raising awareness about the importance of interactions between plants and fungi and the urgent need to protect them.

• American mycologist and evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers has been honored with the Tyler Prize for her work on all fronts to raise awareness about the importance of interactions between plants and fungi and the urgent need to protect them.
• An American biologist has been honored with the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement for her work on mycorrhizal networks – which are invisible but essential for life on Earth. The Tyler Prize is also called the “Nobel of the Environment”. Along with this, a prize amount of $250,000 (€215,000) is also given.

Establishment of the prize

• This prize, often known as the “Nobel Prize for the Environment”, was established in 1973 by John and Alice Tyler and is administered by the University of Southern California.
• It has honored dozens of prominent personalities, such as British primatologist Jane Goodall, who died on 1 October, 2025, and American climate scientist Michael Mann.

Madhav Gadgil

• The 2015 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement was jointly awarded to Indian ecologist Madhav Gadgil and American scientist Dr. Jane Lubchenco for their leadership in shaping conservation and sustainability policy.
• Gadgil was honored for his work on India’s biodiversity (such as the Western Ghats) and Lubchenco was honored for her transformative efforts in US fisheries management and ocean science, which also included her tenure as NOAA Administrator.

About mycorrhizal networks

• Definition: These are underground fungal networks in which mycorrhizal fungi connect the roots of many plants through hyphae (fungal threads).
• Mycorrhizal fungi form a symbiotic relationship. Where plants give carbohydrates to the fungi, and in return they get better access to water and essential nutrients.
• The underground network of fungi in forest ecosystems is known as the wood wide web. Other ecological role: They are responsible for drawing 13 billion tons of CO2 into the soil system every year.