Alexander V. Altenbach
GeoBio-Center^LMU and Department of Earth and Environmental Science
Ludwig-Maximilians-University
Richard-Wagner-Str. 10
80333 Munich
Germany

I am an Associate Professor for Micropaleontology at LMU where I teach micropaleontology, marine geology, and geobiology. My roots in micropaleontology were maintained by Rolf Schröder at Frankfurt University and Gerhard-Friedrich Lutze at Kiel University. Early research in marine sciences was guided by Jörn Thiede, Michael Sarnthein, and all the vivid, interdisciplinary research teams at Kiel University, Geomar, ANU Canberra, GeoBio-Center LMU, and more than 20 shipboard scientific parties on research vessels. Administrative tasks, such as CEO of a software company, chairman, speaker, and dean of research institutions kept me away from research for long. However, time by time, foraminifera taught me that flows and chains in biogenic matter and energy transfers provide a most fascinating key for uncovering system earth.