THE MYCOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
Founded in 1932
©Mycological Society of America
Dear Gary, May 2, 2017
Congratulations on receiving the Gordon and Tina Wasson Award for your outstanding contributions to the field
of mycology and for your efforts in educating the public about fungi. It is my pleasure as President of MSA
2016-2017 to make this special award formally and I realize just how much “citizen scientists” have to
contribute to society. Many people, both who become mycologists and those who are simply fascinated with the
enormous diversity of mushrooms that they see in the forest have likely referred to your Audubon’s Guide.
I am amused and enlightened by the information available on your website ( https://garylincoff.com/ ). It is
wonderful that you bring in the writings of such luminaries as Charles Darwin and Henry Thoreau to educate
your audience and I find it amusing that you have influenced the likes of Martha Stewart! In the words of one of
your supportive MSA members nominating you for this award, “He captures the very essence of a professional
amateur mycologist. He has educated and excited more people about mycology than practically any of us.”
Fundamentally, that’s what we are all about in MSA, the education and excitement of studying fungi and MSA
very much appreciates your work to bring these fascinating organisms to light for the public.
Your writing is prolific and your hosting of public forays and education workshops is tireless and generous. You
have not only written eight books on mycology but maintain an active blog with many followers. In public
activities, your MSA supporters note extensive work with NAMA, which itself contributes much to the public
awareness of fungi and to the MSA. Further, you are the co-founder of the Telluride Mushroom Festival, where
you have steadily improved the scientific content as well as the public’s enjoyment of mushrooms. Most
impressive to me (partly because I now have children living in NY City), is your work with the New York
Mycological Society. Not only is the commitment to running a foray every weekend impressive, but the fact that
you persist through the winter is a huge testament to your dedication to public education on the fungi.
Thank you so much for your continued activities and service to the improving public understanding of fungi.
The impact of your activities no doubt extend well beyond fungal biology to improving society’s understanding
of science and the role that science can play in their everyday lives.
Best wishes,
Georgiana May
Professor of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota
President of MSA 2016-2017
Acceptance speech for the Gordon and Tina Wasson Award for 2017
My grandparents were immigrant shopkeepers, watch cleaners and, eventually, jewelers. My parents were professionals who, along with some of their brothers and sisters, were doctors. I don’t think the question “what do you want to do when you grow up” was ever asked of them. Having read Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” at an impressionable age, I only knew that I didn’t want to find out when I came to die that I had not lived, whatever that meant. In a way not totally unlike Thoreau’s I was drawn to the woods, to a life “out-doors.” I didn’t know what interested me, partially because my undergraduate education was in philosophy. I somehow settled on MUSHROOMS, perhaps because it was thought of at the time as being of no account, a mere curiosity of nature, something that rotted everything else. My grandfather even had to say to me, when my behavior was already too far along to be corrected, “I like lettuce BUT I don’t study it!” Somehow I knew I was on the right track.
I had the great good fortune to come under the tutelage of Dr. Clark T. Rogerson at the New York Botanical Garden, who showed me how he practiced mycology, something my uncle, an ophthalmologist , thought had to do with fungal diseases. Thanks to such giants in the fields of natural history and mycology as Dr. Sam Ristich and Dr. Rolf Singer, I came to appreciate not just the astounding beauty of mushrooms, but their place in the world, and in scientific classification. Had I not met R. Gordon Wasson, and soon after, Dr. Emanuel Salzman, the co-founder of the Telluride Mushroom Festival, I’d never have explored some of the places and met some of the people whose interactions with mushrooms so intrigued Gordon Wasson.
And, true to my roots, much like my jeweler grandparents I never have a loupe or hand-lens far from my eye.
I wish to thank MSA for this wonderful honor of making me a recipient of the Gordon and Tina Wasson Award. Given my non-traditional mycological background, I never imagined in my wildest mushroom dreams that I’d ever be so acknowledged by the Mycological Society of America! Thank you, so very much.’
Gary Lincoff
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