A taxonomic monograph of hyalospheniid testate amoebae

Anush Kosakyan earned PhD degrees in Mycology from the University of Haifa, Israel, and in Protistology from the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland. She then conducted research on testate amoebae transcriptomics at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and at the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, on transcriptomics and genomics of myxozoans. She now studies the diversity and genomics of meiofaunal taxa at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy.

Ralf Meisterfeld was Senior Staff Scientist at RWTH University (Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule), Aachen, Germany. He studied the ecology of testate amoebae in Sphagnum and soils and their role in forest carbon cycling. As species identification is key to the use of testate amoebae in ecology, he also contributed to testate amoeba taxonomy, first using scanning electron microscopy and then DNA sequencing, and became among the World's leading experts on testate amoeba taxonomy.

Enrique Lara obtained his PhD from the Federal Polytechnical School of Lausanne, Switzerland in Environmental Microbiology in 2005. After postdoctoral stays at the Universities of Copenhagen and Paris XI, he worked as a lecturer for nine years at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland). He is now senior researcher at the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). He leads a team working on protist diversity, evolution and ecology with a strong focus on testate amoebae.

Clément Duckert was introduced to the wonders of the microbial world by his supervisors Edward Mitchell and Enrique Lara at the University of Neuchâtel where he earned his PhD in Biology in 2022. He studied the taxonomy, diversity and phylogeny of testate amoebae using DNA sequencing and high-resolution microscopy. His research focused primarily on the taxonomy, evolution and diversification of Hyalospheniid and Euglyphid testate amoebae. He now works as an independent biologist in Switzerland.

Edward Mitchell obtained his PhD from the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland in 2001 on peatland ecology, palaeoecology and microbial ecology. Initially studying testate amoebae as bioindicators of past environmental changes in peatlands, he soon realized how many questions remained open including taxonomy, phylogeny and their role in microbial food webs as well as the very wide range of possible applications in ecotoxicology, forensic science and model organisms in biogeography.