Alan Parker

Office Number: N009

Phone Number: (262) 521-5495

E-Mail: alan.parker@uwc.edu

Title: Professor

Department: Biological Sciences

Office Hours: Not Given

Degrees/Schools

• B.S. in Zoology Eastern Illinois University
• M.S. in Botany Eastern Illinois University
• Ph.D. in Mycology University of Illinois-Urbana

Research Interests

• Taxonomy of the genus Scleroderma
• Gasteromycetes of Wisconsin
• Ecology and Taxonomy of Coprophilous Ascomycetes
• Biodiversity and habitat distributions of higher fungi in Wisconsin

Mushroom Expert

Alan Parker, a professor in the department of biological sciences and past-president and current board member of the Wisconsin Mycological Society organized a "Wild Mushroom Festival," held on campus last fall.

The festival included exhibits of mycophilately (postage stamps featuring mushrooms), photographs, art, and, of course, mushrooms. Countries all over the world -- Germany, Russia, Pakistan, Botswana, and many more -- have issued stamps displaying various mushrooms, but not the U.S., Parker says.

Parker gave four free half-hour lectures during the day on "Wild Mushroom Hunting for the Beginner," "The Variety of Fleshy Fungi Found in Wisconsin Forests," "Hunting the Morel in Wisconsin," and "The 10 Safest Mushrooms for the Beginner." He teaches longer versions of these through the UW Extension and nature centers, but, he willingly admits, when it comes to mycology, "I'll talk to anyone who will listen."

One of a group of ten individuals -- only a couple of them biologists -- who resurrected the Wisconsin Mycological Society in 1982 after about 10 years of inactivity, Parker remains deeply involved with the organization both as a member and technical advisor. He's on call as consultant to the Milwaukee Poison Control Center. Chiefly he responds to hospital emergency room situations where there is suspected mushroom poisoning. He even gets calls from veterinarians about animals who may have ingested the wrong toadstool. Last year he had three of those, he reports.

A product of the University of Illinois doctoral program in mycology, Parker has built a reputation in his 21 years at UW-Waukesha for his expertise both within Wisconsin and the Midwest and beyond.

Each year, Parker collects samples of the state's fungi at several research sites and sends specimens to the Field Museum in Chicago, to the National Fungi Collections in Maryland, and to the UW-Stevens Point Herbarium, providing valuable data for other research projects. These -- and Parker himself -- have been cited in articles appearing in scientific journals and other publications on fungi and on biodiversity. Parker has authored several checklists of fungi found in southern Wisconsin.

Within the last year, he has spoken at the UW-Milwaukee Field Station, at UW-Whitewater as a part of a scheduled biology colloquium, and at UW-Stevens Point. For the past 15 years, he's been a judge for the Southeastern Wisconsin Science and Engineering Fair held each spring at Marquette University.