Pier Luigi Nimis is a senior professor of botany (retired in 2023) at the

University of Trieste The University of Trieste (, or UniTS, Formerly Regia Università degli Studi or The Royal University of Studies) is a public research university in Trieste in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in northeast Italy. The university consists of 10 ...

in Italy. He specialises in

lichenology Lichenology is the branch of mycology that studies the lichens, symbiotic organisms made up of an intimate symbiotic association of a microscopic alga (or a cyanobacterium) with a Hypha, filamentous fungus. Lichens are chiefly characterized by th ...

and

phytogeography Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution ...

, including the uses of lichens as indicators of pollution and devising methods for web-based identification keys.

Early life and education

Pier Luigi Nimis was the first of two boys, grown up in the small home town of

Tarcento Tarcento (; ) is a small city and (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Udine in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of north-eastern Italy. The town officially became a city when the local church was given back its rank of . H ...

Friuli Friuli (; ; or ; ; ) is a historical region of northeast Italy. The region is marked by its separate regional and ethnic identity predominantly tied to the Friulians, who speak the Friulian language. It comprises the major part of the autono ...

(NE Italy). His father, Carlo, was an Alpine soldier who survived the Russian expedition of WW2, returned on foot, and became a prosperous baker; his mother, Matilde, was a popular teacher who taught whole generations of young people. Fascinated from a young age by insects, the young Nimis built a remarkable collection of more than 10.000 specimens from the surroundings of his village, which, however, was swept away by the

1976 Friuli earthquake The 1976 Friuli earthquake, also known in Italy as Terremoto del Friuli (''Friulian earthquake''), occurred on 6 May 1976, at 21:00:13 (20:00:13 UTC) with a moment magnitude of 6.5 and a maximum EMS intensity of X (''very destructive''). The shoc ...

. Nimis studied at the Liceo Classico Jacopo Stellini in Udine, after which he went to the

, where he worked on a thesis on the thorny-cushions vegetation of the high Mediterranean mountains under the mentorship of

Sandro Pignatti Alessandro "Sandro" Pignatti (28 September 1930 – 13 June 2025) was an Italian botanist specialising in pteridophytes and spermatophytes. The Australian plant species '' Calectasia pignattiana'' was named after him. On 31 May 1991, Pignatti re ...

. A post-doc research at

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

(Canada), devoted to the vegetation of the

Alaska Highway