My name is Michael Hesemann, I live in Hamburg, Germany. I am interested in Earth Sciences and photography as a hobby. Foraminifera caught my interest when participating in a course on micro- palaeontology at the local Volkshochschule of Hamburg in 2007. For 1+1/2 years Dr. Uwe Marheinecke instructed and inspired all of us in microscopy, collecting sands, cracking rocks in order to find the remnants of microfossils and recent specimens.
The image shows me in front looking back, exhausted after manual drilling, while analysis and explanation of the core is undertaken by our instructor Dr. Marheinecke.

My collection of foraminifera grew and soon the question arose how to present the forams. I chose to make images rather then fix them in plummer-cells and started the webpage foraminifera.eu. Through the webpage and my postcard with the message on the back "send me your sample of sand or rock" I received several samples from amateurs and contributions by scientists.
In 2008 I joined the Hamburg based Arbeitsgruppe Mikropaläontologie" in the "Naturwissenschaftlicher Verein Hamburg. There I met Karl-Otto Bock and Dieter Ketelsen and Dr. Rosenfeld, who build the inner cirlce of foraminifera.eu. They are long-time enthusiastic amateur naturalists in the field of macro- and micropaleontology, microscopy, preparation techniques, imaging and field-work. We frequently discuss all issues around the foraminifera.eu project

and our local activities. In 2010 Stefan Raveling joined the inner circle providing valuable samples from drill cores and sharing his expertise on preparation techniques. To foster the community character of the foraminifera.eu project we offered in 2011 a weekend workshop on micropaleontology in September and will do so September 2013.
As the collection has grown I added a database and query in order to more easily compare and sort images. The basic idea is to create plates as frequently seen in publications but let the user decide, which plate she/he gets. Technically to each image a set of data is attached reflecting standardized criteria on classification, locality, geological time, collection and habitat. The most simple techniques are used such as html, sql/php and excel.
In the course of time more than 100 contributors joined in and help to create the foraminifera.eu-project with at the moment 5000+ illustrations online. It is astounding and highly motivating that no financial funding or institutional link is needed to run the project. Our mayor resource is naturalist enthusiasm and excitement about forams and what they tell us about life on Earth present and past. The foraminifera.eu project is non-commercial and wants to foster the awareness about earth-nature and one of its most abundant creatures.

Michael Hesemann, Hamburg 2012

Read my abstract on the Foraminifera.eu-project published in the Abstracts and Excursion Guide, 7th Micropalaeontological Workshop of the Grzybowski Foundation, 2009