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Daniel Geiger, Ph.D.

Curator Emeritus of Malacology

Daniel Geiger with SEM

Photo credit: Chuck Place

Dr. Daniel L. Geiger obtained his first degree (Diplom Biologie I) from the University of Basel, Switzerland. His Ph.D. thesis from the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, received the Annual Award from the Malacological Society of London. After a W.M. Keck postdoctoral fellowship in molecular systematics at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and teaching appointments at USC, he joined SBMNH in 2005 and retired in 2024. He is also a Visiting Research Scholar with the Huntington Botanical Garden, San Marino, California.

Geiger is a globally recognized authority on abalone, minute marine snails (little slit shells), and the orchid genus Oberonia. Equally recognized is his expertise in scanning electron microscopy as well as micro- and macro-photography. He has (co-)authored five books and about 70 scientific articles, and has named over 100 new species of snails, crabs, fish, and orchids. Ten species and one genus are named after him. He has held editorial appointments including Zootaxa, Molluscan Research, and Malacologia, and is an appointed member of the IUCN Mollusk Specialist Group. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, photography, and playing baroque viola d’amore (honorary member of the International Viola d’amore Society, e.V.).

Selected Publications

  • Geiger, D. L. 2019. Studies in Oberonia 5 (Orchidaceae: Malaxideae). Twenty-four new synonyms, and a corrected spelling. Blumea 64: 123–139.
  • Geiger, D. L., L. T. Groves & J. E. Vendetti. 2019. James H. McLean Memorial Volume. Zoosymposia 13: 346 pp.
  • Geiger, D. L. 2012. Monograph of the Little Slit Shells. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. 1291 pp, 1042 figs., 5 color plates, 11 identification cards.
  • Geiger, D. L. & Owen, B. 2012. Abalone: World Wide Haliotidae. Conchbooks, viii + 361 pp.
  • Geiger, D. L. & B. Ruthensteiner (eds) 2008. Micromollusks: Methodological Challenges - Exciting Results. Zoosymposia 1, i-vi, 1-308.
  • Geiger, D. L., B. Marshall, W. Ponder, T. Sasaki & A. Warén. 2007. Techniques for collecting, handling, and preparing small molluscan specimens. Molluscan Research 27 (Special Issue): 1–50.

Further Reading

Collaborations & Affiliations

Press

Contact

Department of Invertebrate Zoology
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
2559 Puesta del Sol
Santa Barbara, CA 93105

dgeiger@sbnature2.org
805-682-4711 ext. 152