Greetings all,

I am a recent hire in the Chemistry department at Chicago State
University and a nascent lichen lover. The purpose of this message
is to introduce myself and one of my research interests.

The CSU department of chemistry and physics is working to expand
their outreach programs, and my contribution to this effort is the
establishment of a community-based air-quality monitoring program.
I am interested in exploring the use of lichen to assess heavy metal
air pollution in south side Chicago and have developed a four-phase
pilot project involving passive and active monitoring strategies as
well as basic research aimed at advancing our knowledge of metal
uptake mechanisms of local lichen species.

Presently, I'm trolling for community interest in this type of
project. I'm certain that many lichen enthusiasts are aware of
lichen-based environmental assessment projects, but to my knowledge,
no work of this sort has been conducted in the Chicago area. If
anyone is aware of in-progress or unpublished research, I would be
very interested in this information.

Please contact me either through the Yahoo group or personally at
bobthechemist@... if you are interested in learning more about
the project or have comments or suggestions. If there is sufficient
interest, I'll post more details of the project via the group
distribution, however I don't want to clutter inboxes more than I
have already.

Thanks for your attention.

BoB LeSuer