SPECIAL ISSUE: MARMEIO Verônica da Fonsêca-Genevois and the rise of meiofauna studies in Brazil. Life and contribution of a pioneer, in memoriam Giovanni Amadeu Paiva dos Santos & Tom Moens & Yirina Valdes & Maria Eduarda Lacerda Larrazabal Received: 6 May 2014 /Revised: 16 May 2014 /Accepted: 9 June 2014 /Published online: 27 June 2014 # Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Abstract The Head of the Brazilian Meiofauna Laboratory at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Prof. Dra. Verônica Gomes da Fonsêca-Genevois, passed away on Monday, 2 December 2013, after a long illness. Veronica studied meiofauna since the 1980s. In the last two decades, she focused mostly on nematode ecology and taxonomy, with a special interest in the unexplored deep-sea diversity of the Brazilian coast. Having been the promoter of over 50 Brazilian students on meiofauna-related subjects, and having sent many students abroad for expert training in Europe and the US, she was not only the pioneer of meiofaunal research in Brazil, but also the main driving force behind the impressive expansion of meiofaunal research in Brazil in the last 10 years. Verônica da Fonsêca-Genevois was one of the first Brazilian benthologists to promote lasting collaborations with European institutes such as Ghent University and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. We will remember her as a magnificent colleague and an eminent and inspiring scientist with a tremendous knowledge of, and passion for, marine meiofauna. Keywords Fonsêca-Genvois . Meiofauna . Taxonomist . Brazilian pioneer In memoriam Brazil is the largest country in South America. More than half of it faces the Atlantic Ocean waters, with a coastline of about 7,491 km. It comprises a wide range of habitats and weather conditions and harbors a very high biodiversity, with a great number of marine species that belong to a very broad filogenetic relation. Much of this biodiversity is invisible to the naked eye, and unknown to the public at large and even to much of the scientific community: the minute and amazing world of the motile metazoans that live among sediment grains, the so- called ‘meiofauna. ’ If today Brazil is home to a lively scientific community devoted to the study of these intriguing organisms, then this is to a large extent the result of the passion of one person, who made it her scientific mission to elucidate the diversity and roles of meiofauna: Verônica Gomes da Fonsêca- Genevois (Fig. 1). Verônica was born and raised in Recife, in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, on 9 July 1951. Daughter of Clovis Dueire da Fonsêca and Voleide Gomes da Fonsêca, she grew up together with her brother Claudio and her sister Janeide. Already as a child, Verônica demonstrated characteristics that would continue to typify her throughout her life. She was full of energy and enthusiasm that she readily transferred onto others, and she had an inquisitive mind and always welcomed opportunities to learn and progress. Nature was her greatest passion, hence her spirit of freedom. She obtained her secondary school education at the Regina Pacis School, and subsequently took up studies in Natural History at the Catholic University of Pernambuco. After her graduation, she joined the Laboratory of Sea Sciences (LACIMAR), currently the Department of Oceanography, at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), under the super- vision of Prof. Dr. Zanon Passavante. A bit later, she moved to the city of Fortaleza in the state of Ceará, to work as a scientist for the UFPE, developing research on phyto and zooplankton. G. A. P. dos Santos (*) : Y. Valdes : M. E. L. Larrazabal Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Departamento de Zoologia, CCB, LACIMME, Av. Prof. Moraes Rego 1235, CEP 50670-901 Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil e-mail: giopaiva@hotmail.com T. Moens Department of Biology, Marine Biology Section, Gent University, Krijgslaan 281/S8, 9000 Ghent, Belgium Mar Biodiv (2014) 44:229–236 DOI 10.1007/s12526-014-0251-2