George Albert Llano

George Albert Llano (22 November 1911 – 9 February 2003), born Jorge Alberto Cecilio Perez y Llano, was a Cuban-born American polar explorer and botanist who specialized in the field of lichenology. He was an expert in the Umbilicariaceae.

Early life Llano was born in Havana, Cuba in either 1910, according to baptismal records, or 1911, based on legal records. He immigrated to the United States in 1918. He obtained his undergraduate degree at Cornell University in 1935, and his master's degree at Teachers College, Columbia University in 1939. In 1949, he completed his Ph.D. in botany at Washington University in St. Louis under Carroll William Dodge.

Career Llano took various jobs across the country before settling at the National Academy of Sciences and working on the International Geophysical Year.

After his retirement, Llano continued lecturing, guiding expeditions, and fundraising for researchers. Among his beneficiaries were Ivan Mackenzie Lamb and Henry Andrew Imshaug, who undertook notable lichenological expeditions. Carroll Dodge named some lichen species after him, including Buellia llanoi ,