UPDATE:  The rest of our spring schedule has been updated – check it out! http://observatory.onmason.com/2013/01/26/spring-schedule-up/

The next talk of the semester as part of George Mason Observatory’s ‘Evenings Under the Stars’ series (where you’ll also get to look at awesome galaxies, stars, planets and more through our 0.8 meter telescope!) will be ‘The World of Lichens’ by Manuela Dal Forno.  Come to the lobby of Research Hall at George Mason University.  As always the event is free and everyone is invited!

Some details about the event: Tuesday 19 February 2013: 1st talk at 6PM, same talk at 6:45PM, observing starts at 6:30PM until 8PM Directions to GMU and Research Hall here: http://eagle.gmu.edu/map/fairfax.php   Zoom in to find Research Hall next to engineering building and York River Rd.  Just keep an eye out for weather – the talk will be postponed to the following tuesday if observing has to be cancelled because of weather – updates will be available here – Observatory Twitter

Now a little bit about the talk and our speaker!

Lichens are the resulting thallus of a symbiotic association between a fungal partner (the mycobiont) and one or more photosynthetic partners (the photobiont). This means that lichens are not a single organism, such as animals, plants, mushrooms, they are indeed a partnership between different organisms! This symbiosis is considered one of the most successful fungi life styles, with around 20.000 species! Lichens grow on bark, soil, rock, leaves, or any other available substrate where they can find ideal conditions. What do they look like? Why are they important to the environment and for us? How can you identify them? These topics and many more curiosities will be brought to you in this talk that welcomes you to the world of lichens!

Manuela Dal Forno is a PhD candidate from the Environmental Science and Public Policy program at George Mason University. She is originally from Brazil – she has an undergraduate degree in biology from Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul and received a Master’s degree in botany from Universidade Federal do Parana. When she moved to the US, she worked at the Audubon Center of the North Woods, in Minnesota, where she had the chance to teach and learn from kids and teenagers about how can we make a difference in the world. Her passion for lichens (and fungi overall) began during high school, when she would go out for hikes and observe the beautiful local biodiversity. Her PhD and her previous projects center on revealing the diversity of tropical lichens. Her passion for lichens has taken her around the world to places as far as the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Thailand.