Scientific Exhibitions


  • 1998: Scientific concept and co-organization of the touring exhibition "Santana on Tour" on fossil insects, displayed at Jura-Museum Eichstätt, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe, Naturmuseum Senckenberg Frankfurt, and Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.
  • 2002-2003: Project manager of the special exhibition "Ur-Geziefer - Die faszinierende Evolution der Insekten" on insect evolution at the Natural History Museum in Stuttgart (accompanying booklet, PDF).
  • 2003-2004: Project manager for the multimedia installation "Zeitkapsel" ("time capsule") on amber for the special research exhibition "Mit allen Sinnen" at the Natural History Museum in Stuttgart.
  • 2009-2010: Project manager of the large special exhibition "Der Fluss des Lebens - 150 Jahre Evolutionstheorie" (PDF) for the Darwin-Year 2009 at the Natural History Museum in Stuttgart (Flyer, watch video tour at YouTube), which has been the biggest event for the Darwin-Year celebrations in Germany, e.g. featuring a full-size model of Darwin's ship H.M.S. Beagle in the great hall of Rosenstein Castle. The concept for this exhibition was among the winners of the ideas competition "Evolution heute" (PDF) by the VolkswagenStiftung in Germany 2008 (also featured in Bild der Wissenschaft). The exhibition was accompanied by an EU-funded project EUvolution (PDF), a Summer School with 11 workshops, and an international Willi-Hennig-Symposium on evolutionary biology with 65 participants (e.g., incl. Rosemary and Peter Grant) and 34 lectures. The exhibition had 91.477 visitors (more than the Biennale in Berlin), 1.238 guided tours with 23.490 participants, 3 special event days, 11 public lectures (plus a keynote by Prof. Walter Gehring), and 2 panel discussions. Here is a brief selection of the extensive media coverage (totally 4 TV features, 5 radio features, 158 internet features, 159 regional and 234 national print press features, and 2 press conferences): 3Sat (PDF), SWR2 (PDF), Life+Science (p. 4-7)Stuttgarter Zeitung 1 (PDF), Stuttgarter Zeitung 2 (PDF), Esslinger ZeitungRemsMurr RundschauIDW (PDF)
  • 2011-2012: Scientific project manager for the new permanent exhibition "Palaeozoic" at SMNS (Flyer in German; newspaper reports in Stuttgarter ZeitungStuttgarter Wochenblatt, and Schwäbisches Tagblatt; watch video tour at YouTube).
  • March 2015 - Oct. 2016: Scientific project manager for the Große Landesausstellung "Leben im Bernsteinwald", a forthcoming large special exhibition on life in the amber forest at the Natural History Museum in Stuttgart from December 2018 till July 2019, which also included a new design of the museum's permanent amber exposition "Bernsteinkabinett". This exhibition was based alone on my idea and initiative, I drafted the complete exposé, and led the competitive bidding as well as appointment of a graphic design agency. Nevertheless, after my resignation from the Stuttgart natural history museum they did not even bother to mention my name in any of the official announcements or in the accompanying book of this exhibition, which is of course a major scandal.