Being a palaeontologist with a strong interest in bridging the gap between life and earth sciences, I see WoRMS as invaluable resource for biologists and palaeontologists alike. In addition, I strongly believe that our research results should be easily accessible to a broad public and WoRMS is an ideal tool to disseminate a wide range of data on marine organisms in a structured and fully referenced way.
Apart from WoRMS I am also involved with the Echinoid Directory (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/echinoid-directory/) created by Andrew B. Smith of the NHM London, the primary purpose of which is to provide a taxonomic resource in which the genera and higher taxa of echinoid can be simply and rapidly identified.
I have been involved in the WoRMS Steering Committee since 2013, being responsible, among else, for reviewing data requests and assisting in the development of MoUs with partners of WoRMS. In addition, I am part of the WoRMS Image Working Group, which tries aims to increase the amount of media available on WoRMS taxon page and to develop cooperations with other initiatives that provide marine species imagery. In 2018 I hosted the physical SC meeting in Vienna.
