I am a photographer and research scientist specializing in fossil echinoderms, especially sea urchins, but also crinoids (sea lilies) and starfishes. My scientific background is in systematics, a broad field that includes the discovery, description, and classification of life and the inference of evolutionary relationships. I also study the ecology of fossil echinoderms to see how the interacted with their environment in times very much different from today, such as the late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic periods.

As a freelance outdoor photographer, my work focusses on landscape and weather photography. I am especially fascinated by the beauty and drama of severe convective storms. My second passion is bird photography, especially birds of prey. Only recently, I discovered the fascination of macro photography.

With my wife Anette, I live in downtown Berlin, Germany.

The word tornadoropa derives from "tornado" and "Europe" and reflects my fascination with the earth's most dramatic convective storms which are by far not exclusively restricted to North America's "Tornado alley" but do occur in Europe as well.

Tornadoropa is online since 2008, and experienced a complete relaunch with a new (blog) structure in 2013.

Nov 21, 2013