
Sarah Vega
Post Doc
My name is Sarath Vega. I’m from Lima, Peru. I received my BS in Forest Science from Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. My research will focus on the potential of tropical fungi for spalting. That means that I go around the tropical rainforest looking for nice fungi, and that I love to do it! I love bright colors and also like to paint and do serigraphy in my free time.
Learn more about Sarath’s work in the Amazon here. (in Spanish).
Sarath defended her PhD thesis in December, 2016, and is now a post doc with the Applied Mycology Lab!

Patricia Vega
Ph.D. Student
Patty is a PhD student in the Applied Mycology Lab. Her research traces the historical routes of spalted woodcraft from Europe into South America.

Eric Hinsch
Ph.D. Student
My name is Eric Hinsch. I am originally from Indiana, and most recently from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (think Canada-Lite). I received my BFA in fiber arts from Finlandia University in April of 2013.
My graduate research at Oregon State University will be centered around the colorization of textiles with fungal pigments and the potential commercial application therein. In other words, I get paid to play with pretty colors. In my spare time, I knit, design knitwear, and occasionally dye yarn (again with the pretty colors). My design work can be found at designs.sweatersfordragons.com.

Andrew Cervantes
M.S. Student
Andrew is a first year Peace Corps Masters International Student. He has not yet selected his country of tour.
Andrew is Team Scytalidium cuboideum!

Mardonio Palomino
M. S. Student
Mardonio is an M.S. student in the Applied Mycology Lab. His research focuses on using the extracted fungal pigments in inkjet printers for printing textiles.

Ray Van Court
M.S. Student
Ray is a new masters student in the Applied Mycology Lab. They are studying the use of xylindein to make solar cells under an NSF grant.

Diego Rodriquez
M.S. Student
I am Diego Rodrigues de Oliveira, originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Timber Engineering/UNESP. And now I am a Master’s student at OSU in the Department of Wood Science and Engineering and I was selected to receive the 2016-17 University Laurels Scholarship. I am involved in scientific projects about wood properties; and most recently about wood flooring and splanting wood.

Claudia Andersen
Undergraduate research assistant
Claudia is a junior in the Art & Design option of the Renewable Materials program at OSU. She spent the summer of 2016 living in the Amazon rainforest of Peru and collecting spalting fungi!

Savannah Stanton
Undergraduate research assistant
Savannah is a junior in the Renewable Materials program at OSU.

Leon Rogers
Undergraduate research assistant
Leon is a senior in Environmental Science at OSU. In the Amazon Rainforest he is known as ‘Jungle Jesus’, always swims with his knife belt on, and owns many large chainsaws.

Auna Godinez
Undergraduate research assistant
Auna is a senior in the Renewable Materials program at OSU.

Zielle Walsh
Undergraduate research assistant

He Rui
Visiting Scientist
He Rui is a visiting scientist from China, here to study all forms of spalting.

Derek Stone
Undergraduate research assistant
Derek is a sophomore at OSU and has not set himself on fire in the past two months.