Star Trek Discovery, Mycelium & Lieutenant Paul Stamets - Consultant, homage or art imitating life?

Anyone else watching Star Trek Discovery and fascinated by the story of the galaxy wide Mycelium spore network and the scientific work being conducted by Lt. Paul Stamets? The Mycelium spores are a significant part of the story.
Did Paul Stamets consult for the series or did the writers read Mycelium Running and honour his work by naming the scientist character after him? There are too many similarities for it to be a mere co-incidence.

I just caught a great interview of Stamets’ on the Joe Rogan podcast, where he tells the story of how that show idea idea came to be, plus all the fungal facts ya expect from Paul. I would recommend you check it out, it’s worth it.

I have been enjoying it

I'm going to check this out. All of my writing is done with voice to text, when I place things here. The modern cell phone seems to do almost everything that the communicator did on Star Trek. I often end text messages to friends, with the phrase, Kirk out.

We are avid Star Trek watchers and were THRILLED with the new spore drive concept being brought into the show...  With the Lieutenant being named "Stamets" we were pretty sure Paul Stamets had something to do with it.  

Mushrooms in popular culture....gives me hope.

Here's the interview on YouTube:

I'm actually watching this as I read your post. I am loving that two of my favorite things are mixed together.

I'm loving this too....Paul Stamets, science officer and astromycologist!!!  We knew that fungi were amazing, but I never appreciated that their mycelium spanned the multiverse!