Today we’d like to introduce you to Mandie Quark.
Hi Mandie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I barefoot to receive my Bachelor’s in Chemistry from St. Mary’s College in Southern Maryland in 2007. I spent the first part of my career studying molecular biology in academia, meanwhile culturing a healthy fascination with mycology on the side. For more than a decade I worked as a biomedical research scientist at a Top-100 Hospital. There, while earning my Master’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of the Sciences. What my medical research career lacked in momentum was the inclusion of natural products, my true interest. In 2018 I exchanged my academic lab coat for foraging implements and decided to pursue an alternative career path. I now enjoy taking pictures of mushrooms and explaining the mysteries and complexities of science to the general public. I have been a featured guest on podcasts where I tell how I created classes and content specifically for intermediate to advanced mycologists. My series of classes, “Chemistry for Mycologists” and “Molecular Biology for Mycologists” were well received by the community. Currently, I am working on a book.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The typical mycologist is a 50+-year-old male, so being a short blonde woman, people think I am 21 years old when I am currently 36. Over the course of time, I have always ran the risk of not being taken seriously. Bringing a level of professionalism to my work and my interactions with others in the field has been important.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My platform is “art for citizen science”. I take photographs of the biodiversity of mushrooms and fungi in both the mid-Atlantic region and in southern Appalachia. I then offer prints of the mushroom photography online. The money I have made from this went directly towards gathering and purchasing materials for citizen science campaigns including pipettors and lab consumables I also host classes, both online and in person. Classes are mostly for intermediate to advanced mycologists. However, I do have an upcoming class in Baltimore for beginner to intermediate mycologically minded folk. This class “Winter Mushrooms” will be hosted in Fells Point as part of a collaboration with the local cultivation company Baltispore
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Mushrooming and foraging, in general, became widely popular during the pandemic, and demand for knowledgeable mycologists is now higher than I have ever experienced. Yet, I did have to cancel the first-ever vent I was going to be hosting in the summer of 2020, which was to be named the Rainforest Hideaway Mycology Convergence
Contact Info:
- Email: madmanmycology@gmail.com
- Website: www.mushroommadman.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/mushroom_madman
