Dr. Toby Kiers is a Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the VU in Amsterdam, where her lab studies the flows of carbon and nutrients inside fungal networks. She is the co-founder, Executive Director, and Chief Scientist of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN).

Kiers was named by TIME100 as an emerging leader of for her work decoding fungal trade patterns, and an Explorer 50 for her work in mapping underground fungal systems across the Earth. She is the youngest scientist to ever win the SPINOZA prize – known as the ‘Dutch Nobel Prize’. Kiers won the E.O. Wilson Award for Natural History, and the Stairway to Impact award recognizing researchers creating societal impact with their scientific results. Kiers was named by the UN as one of the 22 scientists making a difference in biodiversity research, and an ‘Innovator to Watch’ by Smithsonian Magazine.