This is a list of malacologists, scientists who study mollusks, such as snails, clams, cephalopods, and others, in a discipline named malacology. People who specialize in studying only or primarily the shells of mollusks are sometimes called conchologists instead of malacologists. Many of these malacologists are notable for having named species and other taxa of mollusks.
This list focuses primarily on people who study or studied recent taxa of mollusks rather than fossil mollusks, so only a few paleontologists are included here. The list also includes researchers who devoted some of their research effort to malacology and some to other sciences.[1][2]
Considering that mollusks are such a very large and diverse phylumofinvertebrates, malacology in general is greatly understaffed in its research efforts.[3] For example, there is no living malacological expert who can properly identify all the species of Onchidiidae (about 143 species).[4] There are also not enough malacologists studying freshwater snails.[5]
