A bit more about the speakers
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![Prof Lynne Boddy]()
Prof Lynne Boddy
Lynne is Professor of Fungal Ecology at Cardiff University. She has taught and researched the ecology of fungi associated with trees and wood decomposition for 50 years. She is fascinated by the hidden parts of fungi - mycelia - and how they behave in the natural world, their aggressive interactions between fungi of other species, how their communities develop in wood, how they are affected by invertebrates that feed on them and by climate change.scription goes here
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Lee Davies
Lee is the Fungarium Collection Manager at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Along with curating the collection, he teaches Fungarium and field techniques for mycological collections in Madagascar. His research interest is the fungi of Madagascar, particularly entomopathogenic fungi and larger mushroom forming fungi in the rainforests.
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Dr Jassy Drakulic
Jassy is a Senior Plant Pathologist and Mycologist at the Royal Horticultural Society where she identifies and researches fungi in gardens. Jassy has created a fungi garden at RHS Wisley, aiming to win over visitors with the aesthetic beauty and ecological benefits of the species on show, and now supports fungi gardening projects in other public gardens. In 2025 she authored her first book, RHS Fungi for Gardeners.
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Dr Sarah Christofides
Sarah is a fungal ecologist and lecturer at Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences. She was first enthused about fungi by childhood forays, and as an undergraduate became fascinated by the complex interactions that shape fungal communities. Since completing her PhD on fungal-bacterial interactions during wood decomposition, Sarah has worked on a large range on fungal research topics and is currently leading a major project on evidence-based conservation for endangered British fungi.
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Dr Andy Letcher
Dr Andy Letcher is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter, where he is programme director for the online and in-person MSCs in Psychedelics: Mind, Medicine, Culture. He is the author of Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom and researches psychedelic spiritualities, especially the use of psychedelics within contemporary Paganism and the surprising revival of interest in the fly agaric mushroom.
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Ali McKernan
Years of walks, talks, tutoring and outreach — alongside his work with the British Mycological Society and North West Fungus Group committees and his full-time role working with children in schools — have fuelled a particular passion for making fungi accessible, memorable and, above all, fun.
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Marlow Renton
Marlow Renton is the founder of Wild Food UK and co-author of the best-selling Foraging Pocket Guide, Mushroom Foraging Guide and the Wild Food UK Forager’s Cookbook. He has been teaching people about wild edible mushrooms for over 15 years with over 70,000 YouTube Subscribers and over 7 million views on YouTube alone. His main passion is fungi of all sorts but particularly the edible kind!
