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-authored several scientific papers, including publications documenting new species of bioluminescent Mycena and Psilocybe and has identified over 400,000 fungal observations on websites like iNaturalist, Mushroom Observer, and Facebook groups.