NAMA Awards 2009

Award for Contributions to Amateur Mycology

David Lewis

Nominations for the NAMA Award for Contributions to Amateur Mycology usually arrive with one or two letters in support of the official nomination letter. The voting, open to all former winners of the NAMA Award, usually results in a close contest, with two or more nominees garnering most of the votes. This year, the person receiving this Award had letters in support of his nomination coming in from a dozen people across the country. And, unlike any vote in recent memory, this person received a vote on every ballot cast by the former NAMA Award winners.

For over 30 years this person has devoted his life to the study of fungi and to helping others in this pursuit. Years ago, in a conversation with Dr. Rolf Singer, one of the giants of 20th Century mycology, one letter writer reports that Dr. Singer referred to this year’s Award winner as "an up and coming amateur mycologist’ with whom he had been working at the Field Museum in Chicago." He went there to study the specimens in the herbarium. That was years ago. He has long since arrived. Now, he not only volunteers for every mycological activity he hears about, but he inspires others, the students he mentors, the mycological societies he works with, and the people in the nature preserves where collects and records all the fungi. Even after 30 years in the field, he is a tireless worker, an endlessly enthusiastic promoter of all things fungal, and one of the warmest, most generous, and least self-aggrandising individuals on the face of the Earth.

His accomplishments are legendary, but to say any more would needlessly embarrass him. I think the esteem of his peers, as reflected in this Award, speaks volumes. In short, he is a giant among amateur mycologists.

It is a great honor and privilege to award this year’s NAMA Award For Contributions to Amateur Mycology to David Lewis.

The Harry and Elsie Knighton Service Award

Joyce Gross

This year’s Harry and Elsie Knighton Service Award winner should serve as a model for what all clubs should try to find and develop, a person who involves herself in as many club activities as she can, contributing her skills as a speaker, instructor, walk leader, mushroom identifier, photographer, artist, chef, administrator, business person, and club historian. In a club, such as hers, as rich as it is in enthusiastic volunteers, standing out among so high a level of accomplishment in the general membership, is an accomplishment in itself. In such clubs, enthusiasm is contagious, and the members, just doing whatever needs to be done, distinguish themselves by the high quality of their service. And this year, no one has distinguished herself more, or is more deserving of the Harry and Elsie Knighton Service Award than the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club’s Joyce Gross. Congratulations.

President's Outstanding Service Award

David Rust

The year’s President’s Award was given to David Rust, NAMA webmaster, for his work on the NAMA website. In addition to the amount of time David devoted to the website, he also worked closely with the committee chairs to update information, he assisted in the creation of a NAMA Speakers Bureau, and helped keep NAMA members informed of our work.

NAMA Memorial Fellowship

Jennifer Kerekes

Jennifer Kerekes is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley under the supervision of Dr. Tom Bruns. Jennifer received a B.S. in Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Michigan in 1999 and an M.S. in Ecology and Systematics from San Francisco State University in 2006. From 1999 to 2000 she was a research assistant in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Michigan where she performed statistical analyses on and identified aquatic insects from Venezuela. From 2000 to 2002 she was a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador and taught environmental education at local elementary and high schools. From 2003-2005 she was a National Science Foundation GK-12 Fellow at San Francisco State University where she taught inquiry-based science lessons for 7th grade Life Science classes. Her dissertation project is entitled Diversity and ecology of saprotrophic fungal communities in Californian grassland and forest ecosystems.