SPEAKERS

Paul Stamets is an elder, author, and independent mycologist whose pioneering work has shaped modern fungal taxonomy, medicinal mycology, and public understanding of psychoactive fungi. He has authored eight books, most recently Psilocybin Mushrooms in Their Natural Habitats (June 2025), and has formally described numerous psilocybin-containing species. In 2023, the species Psilocybe stametsii was named in his honor. 

An Invention Ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a 2020 inductee of The Explorers Club, Stamets has received the National Mycologist Award (2013), the Gordon and Tina Wasson Award (2015), the NextMed Disruptor Award (2023), and the SynBioBeta Lifetime Achievement Award (2024). In 2025, the United Nations recognized him as one of the “100 Disruptors” advancing positive global change. 

He founded Fungi Perfecti, LLC and created Host Defense® Mushrooms™, a line studied in multiple clinical trials reporting positive health outcomes. At IMMC13, Stamets brings decades of fieldwork, taxonomic insight, and advocacy for responsible, science-based engagement with psilocybin fungi—bridging traditional knowledge, conservation, and emerging therapeutic applications.