Dr. Sam Gandy

Sam is a PhD ecologist, independent researcher, science communicator and fungi cultivator. He is a nature lover with a lifelong fascination for living things, and has been fortunate enough to undertake ecological fieldwork in a range of ecosystems all over the world, including Kefalonia, Almeria, Texas, the Peruvian Amazon, Vietnam, Brazil, Ethiopia and the UK. He has been involved with projects centered on the ecological restoration of both aquatic and dryland ecosystems. He really enjoys leading occasional fungi cultivation workshops, with the aim of teaching beginners the key steps involved in the thoroughly rewarding, life-enriching and sometimes exasperating hobby of growing fungi. A key part of his approach centers on the production of mycelium in liquid form - aka liquid culture - sometimes considered a more advanced technique which he nonetheless feels is accessible and valuable for beginner growers. His work involves science communication, as a past senior science writer for Wavepaths, and as a content writer for a number of media outlets including EcoHustler, DoubleBlind and the Chemical Collective. He is an experienced speaker, having given talks at a number of events and conferences, while also delivering lectures in association with Seed Talks. He has varied experience of working within the psychedelic field, including as a past scientific assistant to the director of the Beckley Foundation, and as a research assistant and ecopsychology coordinator with the Synthesis Institute. He also works as an independent researcher, working with academics and institutes including collaborators from the University of Zurich, University of Virginia, University of Greenwich, the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, Onaya Science, Beckley Psytech and the Institute of Noetic Sciences. He has broad interests, researching altered states of consciousness, but his primary research interest is the capacity of psychedelic substances to influence human relationships with nature.