Exploring Global Interactions and Shared History in Vietnam and Laos

The Southeast Asian countries of Vietnam and Laos are exceptionally rich both culturally and biologically. The lush forests, productive farmlands, and other natural resources of this area attracted French colonialists, played important roles in the Vietnam and Secret Wars of the 1950s to 1970s, and are currently the subject of international investment and global commodity trading. Interactions with the United States and other countries have left an indelible mark on the politics, environment, and people of Vietnam and Laos, and the impacts of war have affected individuals and shaped populations in the U.S., including La Crosse. In May, 2025, I joined two Hmong-American colleagues on a research trip to Vietnam and Laos, in preparation for a UW-La Crosse faculty-sponsored study program (open to both UWL students and outside participants) that will begin in summer, 2026. In this presentation, I will describe how our intersecting histories and research areas, as well as a deep network of partnerships with non-governmental organizations and academic researchers doing critical humanitarian and environmental work in Vietnam and Laos, led to life-changing insights in ourselves and a unique study and service program that promises to positively change the lives of its participants.

Dr. Todd Osmundson, Ph.D., is a Professor of Biology at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. A geneticist, mycologist (fungal biologist), and conservation biologist by training, Dr. Osmundson studied at Carleton College, the University of Montana, Montana State University, Columbia University, and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley before coming to UWL in 2013. He has conducted international field research in Australia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, French Polynesia, Guatemala, Mexico, Svalbard, Thailand, and the United States, in tropical, temperate, arctic, and alpine habitats, in an attempt to better understand the global distributions, evolutionary and migrational histories, and ecology of fungi.