Our 2024 Speakers
We are so excited to announce some of the top mycologists in North America are coming together during peak Matsutake season on beautiful Cape Cod.
Five workshops & 20 lectures on topics including macro-photography, interpreting DNA data, cultivation, Russula, Lactarius, Tricholoma, Boletes, Ascos & Lichens!
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More details to come!
Bethany Beech
Bethany Beech is an amateur mycologist focusing on Lactarius and Lactifluus species. After four years of being unable to find satisfying answers in books and papers, her quest led her to learn DNA sequencing and discover many undescribed species. She lives in Southern Vermont with her partner and dogs, and leads the newly resurrected Vermont Mycological Society.
Tom Walker
Tom Walker is a graduate of U. Mass, Amherst in Wildlife & Fisheries Biology andhas conducted surveys of wildlife on the west coast for the USFS and the BLM. He currently works for the Provincetown Water Department, leads walks and gives presentations on lichen, fungi, woody plants and dragonflies.
Noah Siegel is one of the top field mycologists in the country and is originally from Massachusetts. He has spent over three decades seeking, photographing and identifying macrofungi throughout the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Cameroon. He has won photography awards from NAMA and has been featured in FUNGI magazine and numerous other mushroom publications. Noah has authored, with Christian Schwarz, Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast and A Field Guide to the Rare Fungi of California's National Forests. His current book Mushrooms of Cascadia, a Comprehensive Guide to Fungi of the Pacific Northwest is being released this fall.
Noah Siegel
Todd Elliott
Todd Elliott’s first scientific publication was at 14 years old. He has studied global biodiversity and interrelationships in nature in tropical rainforests, deserts, temperate forests, beaches, and high mountains on six continents. He authored the field guide Mushrooms of the Southeast and many scientific papers. He has degrees from Warren Wilson College and a PhD in ecology from the University of New England (Australia). Todd recieved the NEMF Samuel Ristich Scholarship in 2007. https://toddelliott.weebly.com/
Alan Rockefeller
Alan is a widely acclaimed mycologist specializing in DNA barcoding, field photography, and microscopy. He has studied fungal diversity for more than two decades and photographed more than 2,500 species. Alan regularly shares his knowledge openly, leading forays all over North America, including Mexico where he has been studying fungal diversity for 15 years. He has taught thousands of people how to extract the DNA of their mushrooms and has uploaded more than 700 DNA sequences to Genbank. Alan has co-author several scientific papers, including publications documenting new species of bioluminescent Mycena and Psilocybe and has identified over 300,000 fungi on websites like iNaturalist, Mushroom Observer, and Facebook groups.
Gabriela D'Elia
Gabriella d’Elia is the Director of FunDis, the Fungal Diversity Survey.
Jacques Landry
Jacques is a retired professor of cellular and molecular biology from Laval University, is the founding president of Mycoquébec, a non-profit organization dedicated to studying the diversity of Québec’s fungi. Since 2017, he has led a long-term project to create a genetic-based inventory of Quebec macrofungi. With many collaborators, field and lab mycologists, he has analyzed ITS sequences from more than 4000 documented collections, which led to the publication of comprehensive repertoires of Québec Cortinarius in 2021 and Tricholoma in 2022. Currently, Jacques focuses on the analysis of Russula collections.
Renée Lebeuf
Renée Lebeuf has been studying and photographing the fungi of Québec for 25 years and is a major contributor to Mycoquébec.org which contains almost 4000 of her pictures. She regularly speaks throughout North America, has co-authored many scientific papers including the formal description of more than 30 new species. She co-authored the Répertoire des cortinaires du Québec and the Répertoire des tricholomes du Québec. Most recently focusing efforts on Tricholoma, Hygrophorus and Cortinarius. She received the Amicus Tironum Award from NEMF for advancing mycology and her accessibility to amateur mycologists.
Spike Mikulski
Spike is the Executive Chef at Pot au Feu Bistro in Providence, Rhode Island where he serves foraged foods not available anywhere in New England. He is Rhode Island’s first mushroom forager approved by the state and teaches the state’s certification program. His excellent taxonomic skills focus on Amanita, where he assists hospitals in poisoning cases. He also has an excellent series of videos on YouTube on Amanita ID.
Rick van de Poll
Dr. Rick Van de Poll is principal of Ecosystem Management Consultants. He has completed bio-inventories and land management plans for the public and private sector on over 400,000 acres of land. Rick was a professor at Antioch New England University for 20 years. He has taught at UNH and continues to lecture and hold workshops. He started the Monadnock Mushroomers Club and the Sandwich Area Mushroom Club, and is past president of NEMF.
Gary Gilbert
Gary Gilbert, a former architect, serves on the Executive Committee of the BMC and is the creator of ‘Mycocards: flashcards for learning mushrooms by genus’. Some of his recipes have been published in The Fantastic Fungi Cookbook. He is an admin on numerous facebook fungi groups and regularly writes, lectures and leads walks about fungi.
Sigrid Jakob
Sigrid Jakob is president of the New York Mycological Society, a member of NAMA's sequencing committee and Green-Wood Cemetery Fungi Phenology Project as well as FUNDIS, a non-profit dedicated to protecting fungi. She is particularly interested in the Inocybacae and coprophilous fungi, is passionate about DNA sequencing, and has her own home DNA lab.
Susan Hopkins
Susan has been a member of the NJMA for 44 years and has attended numerous NEMF and NAMA forays over the years. After attending the 1993 International Fungi-Fibre Symposium in Scotland she became a “dyer”, learning the use of various species of wild fungi to dye wool. Susan currently studies tooth fungi and lives in the Adirondack mountains of NY learning the local fungi and offering lectures, walks, and demonstrations.
Cornelia Cho
Dr. Cornelia Cho is a physician, President of the Mushroom Club of Georgia, artist and citizen-scientist. Recent keynotes include: Mushrooms as Food and Medicine; The Inner Workings of the Microbiome; and The Mycelial Brain. She is passionate about empowering others---teaching about growing your own medicine, fermenting your own probiotic-rich foods, developing your own life resources, and learning how we can work together, with fungi, to preserve life on this planet
Bill Yule
Bill Yule is a retired High School Biology teacher, Environmental Educator, Naturalist and amateur Mycologist . He taught Ecology and Environmental Education at The Connecticut River Museum for 20 years, member of CVMS, COMA, NYMS, PVMA, former Board member of NAMA. “I’m focused on the evolution of co-adapted species in forest ecosystems through the lens of fungi and their associations." He currently works for the CT Agricultural Research Station Mycology Lab doing macrofungi biodiversity surveys of Connecticut’s major watersheds.
Eric Milligan
Eric Milligan is owner of the New Hampshire Mushroom company of Tamworth, NH producing 60,000 lb of mushrooms per year. He educates thousands of people a year on topics from identification to cultivation. Eric consults with many companies, has co-authored scientific papers and was the catalyst for the licensing program that allows the sale of wild mushrooms in NH. Eric offers a regular ‘Sunday Tour’ at the NHMC, a free tour of their large cultivation facility.
Paul Sadowski has studied fungi for 30 years with mentors such as Gary Lincoff, Tom Volk and Aaron Norarevian. He has been Treasurer and Secretary for the NYMS, and received NAMA’s Harry and Elsie Knighton Service Award. Paul has taught at the New York Botanical Garden since 2016. He is currently Treasurer of NEMF, winning its Eximia Award in 2023.
Paul Sadowski
John Plischke
John Plischke III is a founding member and identifying mushroom expert for the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club, which has become one of the largest mushroom clubs in the US. He can be reached at fungi01@aol.com has been awarded the club’s Distinguished Service Award.
He is a life member of the North American Mycological Association (NAMA) and NAMA has awarded John the prestigious Harry and Elsie Knighton Award and The Gary Lincoff Award for Contributions to Amateur Mycology. He has also presented programs to many NAMA affiliated mushroom clubs.
He is the editor of two WPMC wild mushroom cookbooks. John is the author of Morel Mushrooms and Their Poisonous Look A Likes and Good Mushroom, Bad Mushroom.
Bill Neill
Bill Neill has been studying fungi on Cape Cod for over thirty years. He is past president of the Boston Mycological Club and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resource Conservation from the University of Connecticut.
Paul Sadowski has been an active amateur mycologist for over thirty years. He has studied mushrooms under the mentorship of Gary Lincoff, Tom Volk, Aaron Norarevian, Dennis Aita and others.
He has been a working member of the New York Mycological Society during these years as Treasurer, Secretary, coordinator of the Monday Night Study Group (the Foul Weather Friends) and has led microscopy workshops for the Society. In 2010 he received The North American Mycological Association's Harry and Elsie Knighton Service Award.
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Paul Sadowski has been an active amateur mycologist for over thirty years. He has studied mushrooms under the mentorship of Gary Lincoff, Tom Volk, Aaron Norarevian, Dennis Aita and others.
He has been a working member of the New York Mycological Society during these years as Treasurer, Secretary, coordinator of the Monday Night Study Group (the Foul Weather Friends) and has led microscopy workshops for the Society. In 2010 he received The North American Mycological Association's Harry and Elsie Knighton Service Award.
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Ethan Crenson is a long-time member of the New York Mycological Society. He studied art and is a graphic designer. As an amateur, he has focused his efforts on understanding the Ascomycota, with a particular emphasis on pyrenomycetes—the ugly ducklings of the fungal kingdom. @ethancrenson on IG.
Ethan Crenson