Conference Update: Inaugural Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference, 5-6 June 2017
The planning team for the Inaugural Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference is making progress. Sponsored by iDigBio, the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, the University of Michigan Herbarium, and the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology, the conference will be hosted in Ann Arbor, 5-6 June 2017. Registration and abstract submission will open in early January 2017. Featured speakers include:
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Beth Brainerd, Brown University
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Dori Contreras, Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley
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Mike Donoghue, Yale University
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Dan Fisher, Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan
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Lawrence Hudson, Natural History Museum, London
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Maureen Kearney, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
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Peter McCartney, U. S. National Science Foundation
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Stephen Smith, University of Michigan
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Pam Soltis, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida
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Adam Summers, University of Washington
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Mike Webster, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell University
The rapid mobilization of digitized biodiversity data, led largely in the United States by the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program, has resulted in a substantial increase in available data for research and related activities. This conference will encompass the uses of digitized data across all biodiversity disciplines, with special emphasis on digitized specimen data and the potential for “big data” analytics in organismal biology. This conference will provide an important opportunity to explore digital data tools, techniques, discoveries, and outcomes across the biodiversity sciences.
Oral presentations and posters will emphasize the use of digital data for biodiversity research, inclusive of the neontological and paleontological domains. Emphases might include:
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published or publishable biodiversity research that depends on digital datasets,
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systematics and the use of digital data,
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ongoing research projects that derive from and use digital datasets,
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gaps and deficiencies in currently available digital data that hinder effective use,
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user critiques of digital data aggregators and providers,
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integrated digitization/data use/research pipelines,
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standards and practices for depositing and documenting open access digital datasets,
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the role and relevance of “Big Data” in biodiversity research,
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use of digitized biodiversity data within the ecological sciences,
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the relative importance of digital data derived from specimens vs. observations,
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managing digital biodiversity data in support of research pipelines, and
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analyzing and visualizing biodiversity digital data.
The planning team for the conference includes: Chris Dick, Dan Fisher, Rich Rabeler, Alison Davis Rabosky, Dan Rabosky, Adam Rountrey, Cody Thompson, and Priscilla Tucker from the University of Michigan, and Gil Nelson, Larry Page, Pam Soltis, and Alex Thompson from iDigBio.
For further information or to ensure that you are on the email list, please contact Gil Nelson at iDigBio (gnelson@bio.fsu.edu).
