Meetings for 2021-2022
Speaker Series: Thursday, October 21, 2021 7:30 p.m.
Speaker: Anna Bazzicalupo
Presentation: Benjamin Woo's Russula Herbarium
Anna was born and grew up in Naples, Italy. She went to university for her undergraduate and master's degrees in Scotland. She then pursued a PhD at the University of British Columbia. After a first postdoc at Montana State University in Bozeman she then returned to UBC for a second postdoc. The work she did for her PhD was on the morphology and biogeography of mushrooms. Her work on the Ben Woo collection has helped understand Russula diversity in the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker Series: Thursday, November 18, 2021 7:30 p.m.
Speaker: Else Vellinga
Presentation: Fungal Conservation: reasons, venues, and what you and your club can do
Else Vellinga is a mycologist who is interested in naming and classifying mushroom species in California and beyond, especially Parasol mushrooms. She has described 22 species as new for California, and most recently worked at the herbaria at UC Berkeley and SFSU for the Macrofungi and Microfungi Collections Digitization projects. She got her training at the national herbarium in the Netherlands, and her PhD at the university of Leiden. Her main goal is to contribute to the conservation of mushroom species, and for that reason she has proposed several species for the IUCN global database of endangered species. She tries to keep current with the mushroom literature. Else is also an avid knitter and likes to use mushroom dyed yarn for her creations.
Speaker Series: Tuesday, February 15, 2022 7:30 p.m.
Speaker: Ludovic Le Renard
Presentation: Patterns of Evolution in the Fossil Record of Fungi
Ludovic was born in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, near Paris. He completed his undergraduate degree in organismal biology and a Masters in interdisciplinary approach to life sciences in France before moving to Vancouver for his PhD. Ludovic completed his PhD at UBC under the supervision of Mary Berbee in 2019, interpreting the fossil record of fly-speck fungi. Now a Postdoctoral Fellow in UBC, he continues to compare the anatomy of live fungi with similar looking fossils to unveil patterns of fungal evolution through geologic time.
Speaker Series: Tuesday, March 22, 2022 7:30 p.m.
Speaker: Daniel Winkler
Presentation: Best of Mushroaming - From High Asia to South America
Daniel shares his hunt for gorgeous choice edibles, potent medicinals, and all kinds of bizarre and colorful fungi from the most minute to massive fruitings.
Daniel grew up collecting and eating wild mushrooms in the Alps and has been foraging for over 25 years in the PNW and beyond, sharing his enthusiasm as a mushroom educator and guide and as past Puget Sound Mycological Society vice-president.
In his presentations he is combining his stunning photography (check out mushroaming.com) with a blend of entertaining stories and scientific information. Having been in love with mushrooms since early childhood Daniel managed to bend his career as an ecologist and geographer focused on High Asia towards researching rural Tibet’s enormous fungal economy.
His Cordyceps research has been featured in The Economist, National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, BBC World Service etc.
Updated March 23rd, 2022