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      <h2>Background</h2>
      <p>I was born and raised in the coastal city of Durban, South Africa, which lies between the Indian Ocean and Drakensberg Mountains. Following completion of high school I moved to Michigan, USA and completed a Bachelor of Science in anthropology (major) and biology (minor) at <a href="https://www.gvsu.edu/">Grand Valley State University</a>. I later returned to South Africa and completed a Master of Social Science in social anthropology at the <a href="http://www.uct.ac.za/">University of Cape Town</a>, with <a href="https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/6795">research</a> focused on decentralised networks of medicinal plant harvesters and herbalists (Rasta bush doctors). I then went on to work as an applied anthropologist and ethnobotanist in the non-profit sector.</p>
      <p>Following a year spent travelling in South America, I restructured my life and livelihood around my core interests: carbon-based and silicon-based technologies (biology and computers). Since then I have founded <a href="https://harmonicmycology.com">Harmonic Mycology</a>, a mycology collective dedicated to developing and distributing mycelial medicines, teaching mushroom cultivation and encouraging the formation of humyn-fungal networks. In parallel to those activities, I have worked as an autodidactic software developer on private and open-source projects; most-recently, <a href="https://opencollective.com/peachcloud">PeachCloud</a>.</p>
      <p>I hold a deep fascination with the processes through which humyns form relationships with other living beings. When not in the lab or behind a keyboard, you can find me looking at mushrooms, riding my bicycle or reading sci-fi. I'm dreaming of a three-month adventure across Japan ⛩.</p>
      <img src="glyph_laetiporus.jpg" alt="A young man crouching beside a large orange chicken-of-the-woods mushroom growing from the trunk of an oak tree. Trees, shrubs and grasses fill the foreground and background." style="width: 100%;" />
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