In memoriam Dr. G. Alan Solem 21.VII.1931-26.II.1990

A concise obituary and a preliminary evaluation of the outstanding scientific work of the late Dr. George Alan Solem of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago is presented together with an enumeration of his major publications. Solem has particularly made his mark on the taxonomy of the land snails of Australia and the islands in the western Pacific, on the biogcography of land molluscs, and on the systematics and phylogeny of terrestrial molluscs in general. He has been one of the most important exotic land snail taxonomists of the second half of the 20th century.