As a biology professor at the University of Washington, Joe Ammirati teaches botany and mycology classes. He is also the scientific advisor of Pacific Northwest Key Council and the Puget Sound Mycological Society. Most of his research involves classification and evolutionary relationships of gilled fungi in the Cortinarius genus, but he also researches mushroom toxicity, biogeography and coevolution, and the fungal diversity of boreal, arctic/alpine, and subalpine environments.