e-mail: d.minter@cadi.org

Current position and activities

• Principal Scientist, CABI (formerly the International Mycological Institute)
• President of the European Mycological Association
• Honorary Editor-in-Chief, Fungi of Cuba project
• Coordinator of the project Conservation of Microfungi - a voice for unprotected and vulnerable organisms (Darwin Initiative, 2007-2010)
• Coordinator of the project Climate Change - proactive measures to preserve Caribbean fungal biodiversity (British Council, 2007-2010)
• Chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Specialist Group on Non-lichen-forming Ascomycetes and their Anamorphs
• Member of the Editorial Boards of Acta Mycologica, Mycena and Mikologiya i Fitopatologiya
• Organizing Committee member of the following forthcoming congresses:
  Fungal Conservation: science, infrastructure and politics, Whitby, UK, 2009;
  IX International Mycological Congress, Edinburgh, UK, 2010;
  XVI Congress of European Mycologists, Porto Carras, Greece, 2011 [President of Congress].

Qualifications and expertise

• BA (Oxon.), PhD (Aberdeen);
• Corresponding Member of the Academia de Ciencias de Cuba;
• Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society;
• Fellow of the Linnean Society;
• Member of various scientific societies including the European Mycological Association (founder member), British Mycological Society, Mycological Society of America, Asociación Latinoamericana de Micología (founder member), Asociación Argentina de Micología (honorary member) and Sociedad Cubana de Botánica (honorary member);
• Medals for scientific work (1986, 1996);
• First winner of the Royal Geographical Society's Ralph Brown Prize (1998);
• Biodiversity work, including surveys, conservation strategies and checklist generation;
• Mycology, specializing in identification of ascomycetes (particularly Rhytismatales) and conidial fungi;
• Expert in microfungi on pines and other woody plants of temperate acid peats and soils;
• Expert in computerized databases for biological recording, maintaining suite of relational databases containing well over million records;
• Curator of the Cybertruffle web-server;
• With various collaborators, organizer of Robigalia (observations of fungi and their associated organisms), Cybernome (nomenclatural & taxonomic information about fungi and their associated organisms), Cyberliber (the digital library for mycology), Fungi of Brazil, Fungi of Chile, Fungi of the Dominican Republic, Fungi of Puerto Rico, Fungi of Trinidad & Tobago, Fungi of Ukraine, Fungi of Venezuela, Fungi on Eucalyptus, Fungi on Oaks, Fungi on Pines, Cybertruffle's Fungal Valhalla (biographies of historical mycologists), Electronic Distribution Maps of Caribbean Fungi, Electronic Distribution Maps of Georgian Fungi, Electronic Distribution Maps of Ukrainian Fungi, Lists of Potentially Rare, Endangered or Under-recorded Fungi in Ukraine, Maps Showing Recording Coverage in Ukraine of Higher Fungal Ranks;
• Co-organizer of Seed Banks of Ukrainian Native Plants;
• Joint editor (with Dr P.M. Kirk, Dr P.F. Cannon & Dr J. Stalpers) of Dictionary of the Fungi [edn 9];
• Author or co-author of many publications including Fungi of the Caribbean (with Dr J. Mena Portales and the late Dr M. Rodríguez Hernández), Fungi of Ukraine (with Prof. I.O. Dudka) and Who's Who in Biodiversity Sciences in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan (with Dr I.Yu. Bakloushinskaya, Dr T.V. Andrianova) and others).
• Considerable experience of photography;
• Much experience of organizing expeditions, conferences and other meetings;
• Much experience of working in Ukraine (widespread personal contacts in countries which used to form the Soviet Union, particularly Ukraine, Russia, Armenia and Georgia).

Previous achievements

• Leadership of projects including Recovering Ukraine's Lost Steppe (Darwin Initiative), Digitizing the CABI Bioscience Fungal Reference Collection (IMI), a Global Resource (GBIF), Encouraging Sustainable Development of the Crimean South Coast (DEFRA), Biodiversity Conservation in Cuba (Darwin Initiative), Biodiversity Information in the former Soviet Union (INTAS), Electronic Distribution Maps of Caribbean Fungi (British Council, Darwin Initiative), A Checklist of Patagonian Discomycetes (Royal Society), Biodiversity Information in the former Soviet Union (Darwin Initiative), Fungi of the Caribbean (Darwin Initiative), Fungi of Ukraine (Darwin Initiative), The First Ralph Brown Expedition (Royal Geographical Society), Saving Ukraine's Last Steppe Land (FCO Environment Protection Fund), An Environmental Action Plan for Balaclava (DFID SEPS), and the conference Biodiversity Conservation in Ukraine (British Council);
• International Treasurer of the XIV Congress of European Mycologists (Ukraine, Crimea, Katsiveli, September 2003);
• Computerized British Mycological Society's foray records database, 1983-1988;
• Computerized CABI Mycological Institute's identification service and catalogue production system, 1988-1992;
• Foray Secretary (British Mycological Society), 1983-1988;
• Member of team establishing The Mycologist as a new journal, and member of editorial board, 1987-1988.

Expeditions & fieldwork

Extensive field experience in UK (including St Kilda) and much of western Europe (including Scandinavia); Greece, Peloponnese (1978, 1979); Czechoslovakia (1979); Yugoslavia (1980); India, Tamil Nadu (1981); India, Himachal Pradesh (1981, 1983, 1987); Chile (1985, 1989, 1995); Greece, Mount Olympus (1986, 1988, 1997, 2000, 2007); Greece, Mount Athos (1987, 2002); Greece, Crete (2004); Argentina, Tierra del Fuego (1989); Argentina, Rio Negro (1989, 1995, 2000); USA (1989, 1995, 1999); Estonia (1989); Ukraine, Crimea (1993, 1996, 2000-2006); Ukraine, Carpathians (1994, 1995); Canada (1995); Poland (1996); Cuba (1996, 1997, 1999-2007); Ukraine, eastern steppes (1997); Trinidad & Tobago (1998); Ukraine (led Royal Geographical Society's first Ralph Brown Expedition to the Pripyat Marshes, 1998); New Zealand (1999); Russia, Altai (2000); Armenia (2004).