The FishBase Blog

You may have had the feeling that FishBase has become snappier recently - and you are not mistaken!

We didn’t know how to illustrate that FishBase is faster, so here’s a picture of a speeding saithe (Pollachius virens) instead! Photo: Mike Noren (CC-by-SA)

We are of course delighted that so many find FishBase useful, but it’s no secret that the FishBase servers have struggled to keep up with the load, and, at times, have been slow or even stopped working.

To remedy this problem FishBase Sweden, in cooperation with FishBase Philippines, started a project to speed up FishBase. During the last year the Swedish FishBase mirror has tested a number of changes “under the hood” of FishBase, and the other mirrors have then gradually implemented the most successful changes.

This is a process which is far from complete, but already the improvements should be easily noticeable to the frequent FishBase user, with some pages loading ten times faster!

We hope that you enjoy the “new”, faster, FishBase!  

Fishbase welcomes Dr. Michael Noren as the new curator of Fishbase Sweden

Michael is an experienced zoologist who has frequently cooperated with Fishbase. “I started my career researching flatworms”, he explains, “but have always been interested in fish, and soon switched to doing research on carps and cichlids. I’m very happy for this opportunity to work with Fishbase, as a scientist I know how important it is with reliable and up-to-date information, especially in light of the strain the Earth’s aquatic habitats are under from climate change and the expanding human population.”

Michael takes over the position as curator for Fishbase Sweden after Fang Kullander, who passed away in 2010 after a long illness.

The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden, is hiring a curator to the FishBase team at the Department of Vertebrate Zoology.

FishBase is one of the major global biological information systems, providing information about all species of fishes. The Swedish Museum of Natural History is a member of the FishBase Consortium and maintains an in-house team working with FishBase.

Work tasks

The work consists mainly of planning and performance of symposia, reporting, quality control of data in Fishbase, participation in meetings abroad,  information research, image management, public relations, and continuous upgrading of the local copy of the online version of FishBase. It also includes lecturing at various academic levels, field work, and research and development for the resolution of systematic issues. The working languages are Swedish and English. We work in an MS-Windows environment, primarily with open source software but also with various MS-Windows based systems and software.  

Qualifications

You have an academic degree in Biology, or corresponding exam, with focus on fish research, preferably systematic ichthyology. You are experienced with molecular systematic techniques and analytical methods. Good command of English, spoken as well as in writing is required; additional language skills are meriting. You should have experience from international collaboration. Experience from databases, web publishing, statistics software, phylogenetic software, nucleotide analysis, and programming will be considered as merits. 

Personal profile

You are service minded, and find it easy to create and maintain contacts both with the general public and with scientists. You are well organized and can switch easily between independent and team based work tasks.

 Open immediately. The position is a permanent full time position, starting with a six months trial employment. 

 Information about the position  is provided by Sven O Kullander.  Union representatives are Bodil Kajrup, SACO-S and Yvonne Arremo, ST. All are available at telephone number +46-8-519 540 00.

 Application with personal letter and CV, marked with ”dnr 33-893/2011”, should be sent by e-mail to rekrytering@nrm.se or by letter to Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, PO Box 50007, SE-104 05 STOCKHOLM, not later than 23 January 2012. Certificates and other documents are required only at a potential interview.

 The official announcement is posted by the Museum in Swedish