Sunday, 05 Sep 2010
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Introduction Mike Guwak

My name is Mike Guwak and I was born 1971-04-04. Together with my wife and my little daughter I am living in Eppstein, near Frankfurt. My daughter also likes looking through a microscope.
I am working as a System Engineer in the field Storage / Backup.
In February 2008 I started with microscopy because my daughter got a toy microscope from her grandma. It was very interesting working together with that toy microscope. Via the internet I came in contact with the Microsopically Association Rhein-Main-Neckar. Dr. Detlef Kramer invited me to his institute in the Technical University Darmstadt. On that occasion I tested different professional microscopes. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take the transmission electron microscope with me Wink. But Dr. Kramer showed me how obtain a good microscope from used parts. Due to his long experience in microscopic hardware I am now the proud owner of a Zeiss Standard 14 and it is a pleasure to work with it. Thanks again, Detlef.
My microfotos are photographed wit a Canon EOS 30D adapted to the microscope. This combination leads to professional quality pictures. My aim in microphotography is mainly the documentation of the object’s identifying characteristica.
Since March 2009 my main interest is in lichens. With this theme I came in contact to a good friend, Dr. Felix Schumm. This expert introduced me into the world of lichens and supports me with some materials from his herbarium. Thank you, Felix.

Ralf and I know each other from the German internet forum for microscopy (http://www.mikroskopie-forum.de/ ). Because this forum has so many other interesting themes than lichens, we decided to start a new project of our own. Prof. Dr. Kalb mentioned, that it would be a good idea not only to show the lichen pictures via the internet but also to compile them to a book in the form of a fascicle. The title of this compilation will be the same as this website, “Lichenmicroscopy”. Because we are doing all the work in our free time, it will probably take a while until the first edition is ready. Quality needs time.