Lumbsch was born in
Frankfurt in 1964. Interested in lichens already as a schoolboy, he studied
natural sciences at the
University of Marburg, under the tutelage of
Aino Henssen. He received his
diploma in 1989, with a dissertation titled Ontogenetisch-systematische Studien der Trapeliaceae und verwandter Familien (Lichenisierte Ascomyceten) ("Ontogenic-systematic studies of the Trapeliaceae and related families (lichenized ascomycetes"). After Henssen's retirement in 1990, he transferred to the
University in Essen, where he worked on the Lecanora subfusca group in Australasia, a subject that was the topic of his PhD dissertation. In 1993 he completed his
doctorate under the supervision of
Guido Benno Feige.[2]
Between 1994 and 1997, Lumbsch did
postdoctoral research at the
Botanical Garden of the University of Duisburg-Essen; in 1998–2003 he was a private lecturer there. Between 2003 and 2006 he was the Assistant curator at the Field Museum of Natural History. Since 2004, Lumbsch has been a member of committee on Evolutionary Biology at the
University of Chicago, an interdepartmental and inter-institutional graduate student training program. In the years 2005–2009 he was the head of Cryptogams at the Field Museum, and between 2006 and 2014, the Associate Curator.[2] Lumbsch was the president of the
International Association for Lichenology in the years 2012–2016.[3]
Lumbsch has been the author or coauthor of more than 500 publications, many of which deal with
molecular phylogenetics of various
taxa of lichens.[2] Together with Guido Benno Feige he published two
exsiccatae (collections of dried specimens), one on the
Umbilicariaceae, and the other on
Lecanoroid lichens.[2][4] In his 2009 survey of influential lichenologists,
Ingvar Kärnefelt calls him "a leading scientist on systematics and evolution of lichenized fungi."[5]
Printzen, Christian; Lumbsch, H.Thorsten (2000). "Molecular evidence for the diversification of extant lichens in the late Cretaceous and Tertiary". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 17 (3): 379–387.
doi:
10.1006/mpev.2000.0856.
PMID11133192.
Mercado‐Díaz, Joel A.; Lücking, Robert; Moncada, Bibiana; Widhelm, Todd J.; Lumbsch, H. Thorsten (2020). "Elucidating species richness in lichen fungi: The genus Sticta (Ascomycota: Peltigeraceae) in Puerto Rico". Taxon. 69 (5): 851–891.
doi:
10.1002/tax.12320.
A partial list of his publications (249) may be found by accessing the Scholia link above.
^
abcdeHertel, Hannes; Gärtner, Georg; Lőkös, László (2017).
"Forscher an Österreichs Flechtenflora" [Investigators of Austria's lichen flora] (PDF). Stapfia (in German). 104 (2): 1–211 (see p. 205).
^Archer, A.W. (2001). "The lichen genus Graphina (Graphidaceae) in Australia: new reports and new species". Mycotaxon. 77: 153–180.
^Moncada, Bibiana; Lücking, Robert; Coca, Luis Fernando (2013). "Six new apotheciate species of Sticta (lichenized Ascomycota: Lobariaceae) from the Colombian Andes". The Lichenologist. 45 (5): 635–656.
doi:
10.1017/S0024282913000376.
S2CID86204092.
^Weerakoon, Gothamie; Jayalal, Udeni; Wijesundara, Siril; Karunaratne, Veranja; Lücking, Robert (2015). "Six new Graphidaceae (lichenized Ascomycota: Ostropales) from Horton Plains National Park, Sri Lanka". Nova Hedwigia. 101 (1): 77–88.
doi:
10.1127/nova_hedwigia/2015/0241.
^Archer, A.W.;
Elix, J.A. (2017). "Seven new species and a new record in the lichen genus Pertusaria (Pertusariales, lichenized Ascomycota) from eastern Australia". Australasian Lichenology. 80: 3–15.
Cited literature
Kärnefelt, Ingvar (2009). "Fifty influential lichenologists". In Thell, Arne; Seaward, Mark R. D.; Feuerer, Tassilo (eds.). Diversity of Lichenology – Anniversary Volume. Bibliotheca Lichenologica. Vol. 100. Stuttgart: J. Kramer. pp. 283–368.
ISBN978-3-443-58079-7.