December 20, 2022 / by Olaf Bánki & Markus Döring

David Remsen a great communicator on species names

It is with great sadness that the Catalogue of Life Consortium has received the news of the passing away of David Remsen last Wednesday the 14th of December. David was a wonderful colleague and a dear friend to many of us.

David has been chairing the information system group of the Catalogue of Life for over 8 years and was instrumental in affecting the innovations in the COL infrastructure and the development of ChecklistBank. He was a very driven and inspiring professional, always willing to explain the importance and complexities of species names. We thank Dave for his inspired leadership of the COL Information System Group, and his enthusiastic, driven approach to always strive for improvements.

During his days as a program officer for the Electronic Catalogue of Names of Known Organisms (ECAT) at GBIF he layed the grounds for ChecklistBank, the Global Names Architecture and started a series of Nomina meetings that shaped the thinking of many of us for years. His ideas and visions will continue to inspire us.

David believed in the the transformative and key role of open species & biodiversity data in science and nature management. He actively promoted partnerships, collaboration and inclusiveness. He will be dearly missed. A true and dedicated member of the Catalogue of Life family.

Our thoughts are with his wife Dana and his children Lucas and Gabriel.

Please also take note of the obituary posted by David’s employer the Marine Biological Laboratory as well as the in memoriam of the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

In support of the education of his sons the David Remsen Memorial fund was started.