A Path to Knowing All the Mushrooms of Illinois with Stephen Russell EDIT

A Path to Knowing All the Mushrooms of Illinois
Presented by Stephen Russell
Stephen will discuss his efforts to create a statewide biodiversity survey of macrofungi from Indiana and how these efforts can be applied to neighbors in Illinois. Primary topics will include integrating citizen scientists, online forays, specimen collection, and how anyone in Illinois can get important specimens DNA sequenced for free.
Stephen Russell is a mycologist from Indiana working on a biodiversity survey of all of the macrofungi (mushrooms) that occur in the state. He founded The Hoosier Mushroom Society in 2009 and is currently the President of the organization. His initial interest in mushrooms began with cultivation, which led to writing a book titled The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms (Storey Publishing, 2014). Stephen’s current project is a citizen science and DNA based exploration of local fungal biodiversity, which has now generated thousands of new DNA-sequenced collections of fungal fruitbodies from across the state. Stephen is currently a Ph.D. candidate in mycology at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He also holds a Masters of Public Affairs (MPA) and a Masters of Environmental Science (MS) from Indiana University and an undergraduate degree in Political Science and Communications from Purdue University. When not working with fungi, Stephen works as the CTO for a private equity firm.
Visit Mycoflora's website at mycoflora.org/
Recorded via Zoom on August 3, 2020
IllinoisMyco.com