Pier Luigi Nimis: a life for lichens

There are people who leave their mark in their field. Without doubt, Pier Luigi Nimis (for the registry office, Pierluigi; for friends, Pier; for family members, Pil; for me and a few colleagues, PL) is such a person. On the threshold of retirement but no less active than ever, Pier Luigi is about to begin a new phase of his life, a life dedicated entirely to science and, in particular, to lichenology. PL and I first met in the summer of 1984 at a Botany practicum that he was teaching for a colleague. For a passionate botanist such as myself, it seemed incredible to have at my disposal a person born to explain the wonders of plants and many other things. I was so impressed by his personality and his knowledge that I requested to start a thesis with him, even though I was only in the first year of my four-year degree programme. Although he predicted a hard and wretched life for me (‘Forget about entering university as a researcher, it is extremely tiring and difficult, you’d better not think about it’), we have ended up spending a life together, seeing each other at work almost every day for 39 years. Thus, I can now say that I know PL quite well, and that I am very honoured to write about him on this special occasion.