Alan Rockefeller is a mycologist, biohacker and photographer based in Oakland, California.
He began his studies in the field of mycology with the fungi of California. Since then, he has traveled to various countries to collect and study mushrooms and has photographed more than 1,000 species of fungi from Mexico and 1,000 species from California. Through phylogenetic and microscopic analysis, he has identified several species not described in the scientific literature.
Rockefeller studies and teaches microscopy and fungal analysis techniques at Counter Culture Labs, an open-science, community laboratory in Oakland. He analyzes his regional mushroom collections at the lab using DNA extraction and polymerase chain reaction.
Rockefeller discovered and named Psilocybe allenii, a psychoactive mushroom from the West Coast of the United States. He co-authored a publication characterizing five Psilocybe species. Mycological associations and psychedelic organizations around the country have invited Rockefeller to present his research. He has given talks with the Illinois Mycological Association, the Aware Project, Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz, and the San Francisco Psychedelic Society. He also helps to identify fungi in online communities including the Shroomery, Mushroom Observer, and iNaturalist. Alan regularly identifies mushrooms for several fungus fairs in Mexico and the USA.
He was featured in episode four of the first season of Hamilton Morris‘s show Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia. His work has been recognized by The Washington Post, Ars Technica, Smithsonian, San Francisco Chronicle, VICE, Dallas Observer, Arizona Daily Sun, Chicago Reporter, Smoky Mountain News, Benzinga, Ancient Origins, The Union of Grass Valley, Interesting Engineering, KCRG, Filter, Yahoo Finance, Marijuana Movement, East Bay Express, Boulder Weekly, Scientific American, The Verge, Mother Nature Network, Discover Magazine, Social News Daily, International Business Times, Newsweek, iNews, CBC Radio, and TreeHugger.
More on Rockefeller’s contributions can be found on his ResearchGate profile.
