A computer scientist who is the lead developer and project manager of SILVA, SILVAngs as well as the EukMap web application developed within the UniEuk project.

A molecular biologist with ample experience in taxonomy data management and phylogenetic analysis. Active SILVA collaborator since 2008 and staff at Ribocon since 2012. His interests are data curation, data integration and quality management, seeking for efficient networking and sustainable information infrastructures.

Frank Oliver had worked with ARB since he started his career in microbiology at the Technical University Munich 25 years ago. Inspired by Wolfgang Ludwig's vision to create a software that brings together biologists and computer scientists in the field of sequence analysis and phylogeny to serve the community, he initiated the SILVA project in 2005.

A trained biologist with a focus on technology development for diagnostic microarrays to identify microorganisms. He spend already many years in working with ARB at the MPI in Bremen. He is now the CTO of the company Ribocon and provides his expertise in alignments, data curation and phylogeny for the project.

A molecular ecologist who is interested in the role of fungi in marine ecosystems. By using the SILVA database for studying fungal biodiversity, she improves the alignment and taxonomy of fungal sequences in the SILVA core set and creates sequence datasets enriched in contextual information.

A molecular ecologist who wants to know "Who is out there?" and "What are they (the microorganisms) doing?". With about 15 years of ARB experience behind him he is the lead tester of the new databases and ARB versions. His team provides sequences, designs probes and curates the alignments.

Many thanks to Wolfgang Ludwig, Ralf Westram and Oliver Strunk for decades of expertise in ARB phylogeny and databases. The SILVA project could have never been realised without the long-standing support in software development and database curation by the Munich Team.

More than 30 molecular ecologists are working under the guidance of Rudolf Amann on diversity analysis, in situ hybridisation, cloning and sequencing. They are our extended test bed for all the developments. They provide curated sequences and new ideas for ARB and SILVA.