 Between 1989 and 2009 his German wife, Christine, helped him in collecting and taking photos of smutted plants.Over 60 years Vánky amassed the largest smut fungus collection in the world, "Herbarium Ustilaginales Vánky (HUV)", containing over 22,000 samples.In August 2013 it was relocated to the Queensland Plant Pathology Herbarium, Brisbane, Australia (‘BRIP’), and placed at the disposal of the mycological community.