Argentine Lichenologist. Lidia Ferraro studied in the Faculty of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences at The National University of the Northeast (UNNE) in Corrientes, Argentina. She gained both an undergraduate degree in botany and a doctorate in biological sciences and she studied in the Botanical Institute of the Northeast (IBONE) as an assistant to Antonio Krapovickas and Carmel Cristóbal. In this role she first encountered lichens when Cristóbal gave her a box of unprocessed specimens and asked her to order them; Ferraro has worked in this field ever since. She is a researcher for IBONE based in the Faculty of Agrarian Sciences at UNNE as well as a researcher under CONICET (the National Council for Research in Science and Technology). Her research has focused on lichens that live on leaves (foliicolous) and especially the taxon Gomphillaceae in northern Argentina, Paraguay and the Yungas forests of Bolivia. Ferraro is director of the IBONE collection of South American lichens and worldwide Gomphillaceae, by volume the most important collection in the country (40,000), in the herbarium CTES. She has published many works on foliicolous lichens, often with her colleague Robert Lücking, covering both the Gomphillaceae and Asterothyriaceae. The genus Ferraroa was named after her by R. Lücking, E. Serusiaux and A. Vezda.

Sources:
Licenciada Lidia Itatí Ferraro. Entrevista. El Universitario: http://eluniversitario.unne.edu.ar/2005/75/pagina/entrevista.htm.