Pier Luigi Nimis

His publication in 1993 of a comprehensive catalogue of 2145 infrageneric taxa of lichens found in Italy, followed by an updated version in 2016, are considered significant landmarks in scholarship and thoroughness, and are of value for their descriptions and feature keys of lichens beyond the Italian region.

Two genera and two species have been named to honour Nimis: Nimisia Kärnefelt & A. Thell (1993), Nimisiostella Calat., Barreno & O.E. Erikss. (1997), Rinodina nimisii Giralt & H. Mayrhofer (1995), Topelia nimisiana Tretiach & Vězda (1992).

Nimis's research has also included collaborations on checklists of the lichen biodiversity in the Mediterranean and Antarctic regions, as well as development since the 1990s of web-based identification keys that have been applied to several groups of organisms and developed into the KeyToNature mobile apps from 2015.

From 1987 until 1993 he was President of the Italian Lichen Society, as well as one of its founders, and President of the International Association of Lichenology from 2000 until 2004. In 1993 he was awarded the OPTIMA Silver Medal for the best book on the phytotaxonomy of the Mediterranean area published in the preceding three years, the International Ferrari-Soave Prize for Biology from the Academy of Sciences of Turin in 2009, and the Acharius Medal in 2014.

After his doctorate, Nimis became a member of staff at the University of Trieste and by 1986 he was Professor of Systematic Botany. He has since also held several administrative posts such as the chair of the School of Biological Sciences from 1988 to 1990 and Dean of the Doctoral School of Biomonitoring from 2009 until 2011.

Nimis's research was initially on phytogeography and methods for the joint mapping of plant distribution ranges with multivariate methods, mainly in the Boreal and Arctic zones. Later he began to concentrate on lichens, including their identification and role as indicators of atmospheric pollution. After the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 he led programmes to map and monitor levels of radioactive caesium in macrofungi, forest plants and mosses in Italy. He extended his research to the use of lichens as bioindicators of air pollution, demonstrating a correlation between lung cancer and air pollution by mapping human mortality and lichen biodiversity in the Veneto region of Italy. Nimis was also the co-leader of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop in Wales in 2000 that brought together an international group of researchers working on lichens and air pollution and led to the publication of Monitoring with Lichens – Monitoring Lichens in 2002.

He studied for his doctorate at the University of Trieste and it was awarded in 1977.