Aurel Dermek

Biography

Dermek spent his childhood in Brodské, and later attended high school in the nearby Malacky. After abandoning the pursuit of a technical college degree, Dermek worked as an industrial designer in and around Bratislava. A self-taught mycologist, his interest in the field grew from a hobby into a secondary profession. Throughout his career, which spanned 24 years, he published over 50 scientific papers and 16 books, translated into multiple foreign languages. In addition to the above, he dedicated his time to producing visual images of fungi: altogether he published 869 watercolor plates, usually containing multiple species per plate and multiple fruiting bodies per species, as well as 759 color photographs and 432 pieces of line art. After retiring in 1985, he spent the rest of his days in Brodské.

He was an honorary member of the Czechoslovak Scientific Society for Mycology and the Czech Mycological Society, as well as an accomplished member of the Slovak Botanical Society at the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

The standard author abbreviation Dermek is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.