Dr. Steve Stephenson, who has also published Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of the World and Myxomycetes of New Zealand, is a former professor of biology at Fairmont State University. Introduced to fungi in 1995 by Stephenson, fellow author and information technology specialist, Denise Binion is also the co-author of Field Guide to Native Oak Species of Eastern North America. William Roody is currently documenting the distribution of macrofungi throughout West Virginia and works with the state's rare plants and animals. Dr. Larissa Vasilyeva, a research scientist, has described 100 new species of the pyrenomycetous fungi, along with twenty new genera in this group. Dr. Harold Burdsall Jr., a mycologist and former project leader, has been studying wood-inhabiting fungi for more than forty years and is currently a volunteer mycologist. Dr. Orson K. Miller Jr., a former professor of botany at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, has published more than 160 scientific manuscripts and eight books.