Ellen Strong
Area of Taxonomic Interest: Mollusca
Country: United States
Homepage: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/staff/ellen-strong
Role: Elected: February 17, 2025
Ellen Strong’s research is on the phylogeny, diversity and systematics of the Caenogastropoda, a large clade comprising ~60% of Recent gastropods. Her main focus is on documenting and describing the diversity of highly endangered freshwater snails in the superfamily Cerithioidea. She is also interested in understanding the repeated conquest of freshwater habitats in this predominantly marine clade. Among her nomenclatural contributions is as a co-author of a classification and nomenclator of gastropod and monoplacophoran families.
Summary of Research & Education:
Ellen received a BA (with honors) in Paleontology in 1991 from the University of California at Berkeley and a PhD in Biology in 2000 from The George Washington University. After post-doctoral fellowships at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin and at the NMNH in Washington DC, her first professional appointment was Assistant Professor in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation at the University of Minnesota, and Curator of Mollusks at the Bell Natural History Museum (2002-2004). She subsequently returned to the NMNH where she has served as Research Zoologist and Curator of Mollusks since October 2004.
She has served on the Editorial Boards of four journals (Journal of Molluscan Studies, Ruthenica, Hacquetia, Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology), on the Advisory Board for Zoologischer Anzeiger, and on the Board of Directors for Malacologia. She has also been active in the American Malacological Society where she recently served as President (2018-19).
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