Face of the LIB: Dirk Neumann

What led you to biology? Was there a key experience?

My first aquarium led me to biology. But even before that, as a young boy, I used to sit by the water a lot and look out for tadpoles and insects. I've always been fascinated by fish, and there was also a family background. My uncle had an aquarium back then and gave me my own when I was in seventh grade. My last aquarium was 4.20 metres long and ran through the bookshelf of my office in Munich. In the current channel with waterfall, I was able to observe how the cichlids reacted to the current: just like outside.

What would you have become if biology hadn't worked out?

I would probably have remained a ramp agent at the airport; that was my plan B if my career as a biologist hadn't worked out. During my studies, I worked as a commercial employee at UPS at Munich Airport. We were responsible for the complete handling of our aircraft. The most important thing was that it left on time.

To what extent do you still benefit professionally from this experience today? What skills do you need today in addition to your knowledge of biology?

As a ramp agent, I learnt to work in a relatively pragmatic and solution-oriented way, simply because you had a lot of responsibility there. You often had to push yourself to the limit, know your stress level and be able to rely blindly on your colleagues. There was no guru knowledge. It was a great team experience. It was important to see: How does the process work? That's also something I try to bring to the LIB, that you understand this interlocking, these processes, the scaling.

What advice do you have for young biologists starting their career?

Be curious! And in all directions. Try to understand basic principles and interrelationships in biology. Admit your mistakes. Be prepared to make some and talk about them.

What are the tasks of a collection manager? Where do you see your role in the LIB as a whole?

The job is spilling over from the Anglo-American world. Only a few natural history museums in Germany have a collection manager so far, the LIB has three. The work in the research institutions and in the collections has changed a lot: The increase in scientific staff is significantly higher than that of technical staff. In addition, collection material is increasingly being brought in through third-party funded projects and no longer solely by the curators of the collections. The curators, who are also in charge of one of our sections, can no longer take care of the details in depth. With third-party funded projects, people often leave before the material has been deposited in the collection.

At the same time, requests for collection material are increasing. The challenges are huge. In order to cope with this, we need processes that support and relieve our colleagues in the collections. Standardisation helps us, because if one cog doesn't work, if a member of staff is absent, this has an impact on the entire process chain. We need an interface that helps to bring together the different activities and strands of action in such a way that it doesn't create more work and in the knowledge that we are all working together towards a common goal.

To ensure that we are not only successful as an institution in scientific terms, but also that our collection material is accessible for science and the exhibition, we must all work in the same direction. That is how we are measured.

What is exciting about the merger of the research institutes in Hamburg and Bonn?

For me, it's exciting to tease out the synergies between Bonn and Hamburg. In addition, there is the complete planning of a new natural history museum in Hamburg - including the accommodation of the collections. How can smart planning in a new building support the processes in the collections? It's not about copying what already exists, but about building something better. All the material in the collection could be centralised. Then all sections would work together, everyone would know the processes of the others and there would be no guru knowledge.

What do you see as the core task of the LIB?

The core task of the LIB is to make the collection objects accessible for various purposes - for research, exhibition and communication. Where necessary, the processes in the collections must be optimised so that the knowledge of individuals can be incorporated into the whole and not be lost. This also includes linking the objects with scientific research data. We need a fundamental concept for this.

In your opinion, what is currently the biggest challenge in environmental protection?

In all political decisions, there is a strong field of tension between the decision-makers and interest groups. Our task is to contribute scientific facts and to convey a better understanding of the interrelationships. Many decisions in nature conservation are about protecting individual species rather than entire habitats. A key conflict lies in the fact that the protection of habitats sometimes does not correspond to economic and political interests. We always have to ask why measures are being taken, why we are doing them and what is expedient.

What do you want people to associate with the LIB in ten years' time?

I would like us to play a major role in biodiversity monitoring as a whole and to have made a good point here in ten years' time. We have a great social responsibility for scientific findings on biodiversity change. Red Lists as indicators are not enough. In order to be able to provide a good data basis, we need to establish standardised monitoring with time series from a single point and qualifiable units.

Dirk Neumann has been the Collection Manager of the LIB in Hamburg since May 2022. He completed his studies in biotechnology at the Technical University of Munich and zoology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University with his diploma thesis on "Morphological and molecular diversity of Sarotherodon galilaeus multifasciatus (Pisces: Cichlidae) in Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana". In addition to his duties as a technical assistant in ichthyology at the Bavarian State Zoological Collections, he worked scientifically on the fish fauna of the Nile and contributed to the interface between science and policy to promote taxonomic research. Since 2011, he has been working intensively on issues relating to the Nagoya Protocol, where he leads various expert groups and participates in international committees on the management of scientific collections. He is now contributing his expertise to the LIB.