1. What do you study related to biodiversity (what are your research questions, what organisms do you work on)?
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 I am studying the taxonomy, distribution, and ecology of non-marine mollusks, with focus on terrestrial gastropods (snails and slugs).
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2. How do you study biodiversity (for example, what technological tools and methodologies do you use in your research)?
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Larger snails are collected by picking up individual animals. Smaller species down to an adult size of ca. 1.5 mm can be found by taking leaf litter and soil samples which are then processed in the laboratory. I investigate the outer morphology (mainly of the shells) and the inner anatomy of the snails to identify the species and determine the relation between the species. For one of my current projects I intend to employ DNA sequencing methods as well. I use photography and drawings for illustrations.
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3. Where do you study biodiversity?
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Current projects include:
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A study of isolated populations of a rock-dwelling snail genus (Chondrina) in the Alps of Italy and Austria.
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Continuing data collection on the taxonomy and distribution of the Holarctic genus Vallonia (I authored a comprehensive revision of the genus in 1996), including the living as well as the fossil species. Although I did not collect the material myself, I recently identified Vallonia specimens from Tadzhikistan and the Lake Baikal region of Russia in collaboration with researchers who try to reconstruct environmental changes in these areas during the Pleistocene and Holocene periods.
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Compilation of a checklist and bibliography of the snails and slugs of Illinois.
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4. How might your research have implications for biological conservation?
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 Generally, the ability to correctly identify a species is a prerequisite for all ecological and species-focused conservation work. In the Chondrina project, we will investigate whether isolated populations that look different to varying degrees are really genetically isolated from the "mother populations" and how long this isolation may have lasted. Because the isolated colonies live in very restricted areas this information will be directly significant for the evaluation of their conservation status.
The last snail and slug checklist for Illinois was published in 1939 (terrestrial species only). Since then the taxonomy and nomenclature of mollusks has seen drastic changes which makes it almost impossible for a non-specialist to use the 1939 list. Furthermore, numerous additional species have been recorded from the state during the past six decades. Other species might have vanished or become scarce, but nobody really knows, because, although there is a lot of published information about snails and slugs in Illinois, the information is widely scattered and not easily accessible. A modern checklist and bibliography will be a tool that can be used by zoologists, conservationists and agencies to obtain conservation-related information about the gastropods of Illinois.
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5. How did you become interested in science? What made you want to be a scientist, and how did you get to The Field Museum?
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I was curious about everything that grows, crawls or moves around as long as my memory goes back. This was probably partly due to my father and grandfather's interest, though not a strictly scientific one, in all natural things. After spending my childhood and youth among salamanders, frogs, lizards, beetles, worms and, of course, snails, biology seemed an obvious choice when I had to choose a major in university. A couple of years after finishing my Ph.D., my current position in The Field Museum became vacant. I applied and got the job.
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