[Data-Mongers] Biodiversity Informatics: Mining Untapped Resources

[Lisa Raymond]

MBLWHOI Library presents:
Woods Hole Scientific Informatics Seminar Series
*"Biodiversity Informatics: Mining Untapped Resources*"
P. Bryan Heidorn
Director, University of Arizona School of Information Resources and 
Library Science

Monday, March 8, 2010, 12:15 pm at the Speck Auditorium in the Rowe 
Laboratory
Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

It has been long recognized that biodiversity research leads to a very 
broad diversity of data but in spite of this complexity biologists are 
not routinely trained in informatics and there is relatively little 
information infrastructure within their facilities. In this presentation 
we will analyze a number of biodiversity informatics projects to 
identify the critical informatics skills required to make the project 
successful. The survey of projects will be based in part on the 
biodiversity informatics projects funded by the JRS Biodiversity 
Foundation http://www.jrsbdf.org/ and the speaker’s projects. Some of 
the projects will include specimen digitization, text mining, sensors, 
mining character states from text, text fusion, animal tracking, 
biodiversity decision support systems, morphological ontologies, 
georeferencing, niche modeling and others. This analysis will be used to 
inform a discussion of the diversity information technologies that would 
need to be taught in a graduate program in biodiversity informatics to 
support the next generation of biodiversity informatics.

P. Bryan Heidorn is the director of the University of Arizona School of 
Information Resources and Library Science beginning October, 2009. The 
prior two years he was a program manager at the National Science 
Foundation Division of Biological Infrastructure were he worked on 
programs such as Advances in Biological Informatics, Assembling the Tree 
of Life, Dimensions in Biodiversity Working Group, the Plant Science 
Cyberinfrastructure Center, the cross-agency Data Working Group and 
others. From 1995-2009 he was a faculty member the Graduate School of 
Library and Information Science where he participated in the creation of 
a masters degree in biological informatics and a concentration in data 
curation in the MLS degree. His research methods include machine 
learning, text mining and information retrieval applied to biodiversity 
research.

Directions: http://www.mbl.edu/about/visit/directions/index.html.
Campus map: http://www.mbl.edu/education/student_services/pdf/campus_map.pdf
Metered (quarters only) street parking is available.

-- 
Lisa Raymond
Assistant Library Director, WHOI
Manager Data Library & Archives
MBLWHOI Library
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
MS#8, Woods Hole, MA 02543
phone:508-289-3557/fax:508-457-2156