Let's get together VIRTUALLY! Mark your calendars and get ready to enjoy this special lichen edition our our monthly meeting via Zoom! 

We'll feature:

• Club welcome and news by President Tom McCoy
• From ID table to Kitchen table by Culinary Chair, Cindy Connelly Ryan
• Special Lichen inspired ID table using the observations on our iNaturalist project, highlighting our favorite lichenologist, Dr. Natalie Howe
• Featured presentation: Insular Caribbean lichens: a trove of biological diversity hiding in plain sight by Dr. Joel Alejandro Mercado Diaz
  Description:
  In this talk, Dr. Mercado Diaz will discuss the current state and future of Caribbean lichenology. He will share insights and provide examples of how integrative taxonomic methods—merging DNA analysis with ecological and morphological data— are reshaping our understanding by revising species boundaries and exposing hidden diversity in this region. Major challenges the field faces, from limited regional expertise to research and other academic hurdles will also be covered. To conclude, Dr. Mercado-Diaz will outline next steps for moving forward, including boosting collaboration, growing specimen collections, and leveraging online citizen science platforms to fully explore the region's lichen diversity.
  
  Bio: Joel A. Mercado Díaz is a lichenologist and plant biologist with academic training in Environmental Sciences (BSc) and Ecology/Systematics (MSc). His research centers on the phylogenetics, systematics, and ecology of lichens and plants in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, with additional interests in natural history collections, the history of botany and lichenology, and forest conservation. He earned a PhD in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Chicago in 2021 through the Committee on Evolutionary Biology and was a resident graduate student at the Field Museum under the mentorship of Dr. H. Thorsten Lumbsch. His work integrates taxonomic, ecological, and comparative phylogenetic approaches to study lichen diversity and distribution across Caribbean islands. He currently works as an independent contractor providing scientific writing, taxonomic inventories, and species identification services.

Zoom Link:

https://zoom.us/j/96693690911?pwd=YWdyeXh1bHF1N1UyNjNieFovNWFUZz09

Meeting ID 966 9369 0911

Passcode  330827

One Tap Mobile +13017158592,,96693690911#,,,,*330827# US (Washington DC)

Find your local Zoom access number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kQ9hr47WO