Chicita Frances Culberson

Chicita Frances Culberson (born Chicita Frances Forman, November 1, 1931, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – March 5, 2023, in Durham, North Carolina) was an American lichenologist.

Education Culberson grew up on Long Island while her father worked as a surgeon in nearby New York City. In 1954, she received an M.S. from the University of Wisconsin, where her research involved using a radioactive nickel tracer to study the physical and chemical processes of the electrodeposition of metal on a cathode.

A botanical researcher at Duke University, Culberson pioneered the use of thin-layer chromatography in the identification of secondary lichen products, developing a standardized method that is still used today. She later refined this method and supplemented it with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). until his death in 2003. Culberson died on March 5, 2023, at Croasdaile Village, a senior adult community in Durham, North Carolina.

Culberson was a lifelong member of both the American Chemical Society and the American Bryological and Lichenological Society, serving as President of the latter from 1996–1997.

Eponymy

In 2000, the lichenologist Theodore Esslinger circumscribed Culbersonia, which is a fungal genus in the family Caliciaceae and named in Bill Culberson and Chicita F. Culberson's honor, his "longtime friends and mentors". The lichen genus Chicitaea, proposed in 2024, honors Culberson "for her foundational, pioneering and lifelong contributions to the fields of lichen chemistry and lichen taxonomy".