This is the tenth in the series of short statements from candidates in the forthcoming CODATA Elections. Paul Uhlir is a new candidate for the CODATA Executive Committee as an Ordinary Member.  He was nominated by the USA CODATA National Committee.

If elected as Ordinary Member of the CODATA Executive Committee, 2016-2018, I expect to share my expertise and experience, outlined below, in the three CODATA Strategic Plan areas. I also want to focus on enlarging the national and institutional memberships to make CODATA more fiscally sustainable using my extensive international contacts, and to help develop a strategy for strengthening the work on the CODATA National Committees.

I have played an active role in CODATA since 1992, when I was appointed as Director of the U.S. National Committee for CODATA at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. Other CODATA functions over the last 25 years have included the following:

• Co-chair, CODATA Task Group on Preservation and Access to S&T Data in Developing Countries, 2001 to the present.
• Co-Founder, Global Information Commons for Science Initiative, 2002-2008.
• Director, CODATA-ICSTI Task Group on Data Citation for Standards and Practices, 2010-2015.
• Consultant, CODATA Task Group on Advancing Informatics for Microbiology, 2010-2014.
• Co-chair, RDA-CODATA Interest Group on Legal Interoperability of Research Data, 2013 to the present.
• Co-Chair, Group on Earth Observations’ Data Sharing Working Group (representing CODATA), 2006 to the present.
• Member, Scientific Committee for the International CODATA Conference, 1992-2014.
• CODATA Consultant for the 3^rd-Year Review of GBIF, 2003-2004.
• CODATA Consultant to the Group on Earth Observations report on The Value of Data Sharing, 2015.
• CODATA Consultant to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for a report on Sustainable Business Models for Data Repositories, 2016-2017.

I am currently a Scholar of the National Academy of Sciences and a consultant on data management and policy. Before that, I worked at the NAS from 1985 to 2015 in various senior positions, most recently as Director of the Board on Research Data and Information, which also represented the U.S. CODATA. Prior to the NAS, I was a foreign relations officer and a member of the general counsel’s office at the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service in the Department of Commerce. I have university degrees in world history, foreign relations, and law. The full background information about my many other research data activities and accomplishments can be found on my website at: http://www.paulfuhlir.com. More specifically, I have extensive experience in all 3 strategic areas of CODATA:

1. Promoting data principles, policies and practice. I have chaired or been involved in forming data policies and principles in many of the major international organizations, including UNESCO, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Science International, the European Commission (EC) and numerous EC-funded research data projects, the Research Data Alliance (RDA), and CODATA itself. I have similarly been an advisor on research data issues to many government agencies or ministries, including in Chile, Peru, Canada, China, Japan, South Africa, Uganda, several countries in the EU, and most of the agencies and departments in the United States. I also have served on the authoring committees that wrote: the Salvador Declaration on Open Access (2005), the UN World Summit on the Information Society Declaration of Principles (2005), the OECD Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding (2007), the OECD Recommendation on Public Sector Information (2008), the Joint Declaration on Data Citation Principles (2014), the CODATA Nairobi Data Sharing Principles (2014), the Science International Accord on Open Data in a Big Data World (2015), and the RDA-CODATA Principles and Implementation Guidelines for the Legal Interoperability of Research Data (currently). Finally, as a lawyer and science policy analyst, I have brought substantial social science expertise to the table in all these activities.
2. Advancing the frontiers of data science. I have been the author, editor, or director of 24 National Research Council reports and of 3 books, most on various topics of data science and its management and policy, as well as authoring over 70 technical articles in that general area (see my full list of publications on my website, with the link above. I was awarded the National Research Council’s Special Achievement Award in 1997 and the CODATA Prize for Outstanding Achievement in the World of Scientific and Technical Data in 2010, and was elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for my work in scientific information in 2011.
3. Data strategies for international science. This CODATA strategic initiative is mostly focused on education and training in the developing world, where I have co-organized over 25 workshops on this topic in South America, Central America and Caribbean, Africa, and Asia from 2002-present. I have served as the director of the InterAcademy Panel on International Issues Program in Digital Knowledge Resources and Infrastructure in Developing Countries (2005-2012), and lectured in training programs in Mongolia (2010), China (2012, 2013), and Kenya (2014). See also the information under #1, above, and on my website.

This is the ninth in the series of short statements from candidates in the forthcoming CODATA Elections. Peter Baumann is a new candidate for the CODATA Executive Committee as an Ordinary Member.  He was nominated by the Research Data Alliance.

In my construction and activities I can be considered have scientists and half engineer [1]. I admire the beauty of concepts and feel satisfaction when they transform into practice and societal benefit. With a PhD in Computer Science, this pairing has always driven my work and aspirations. Hence, my professional life has seen me in the IT industry with experience as programmer, international project leader, CEO, and hi-tech founder as well as being professor in academic research and education.

My research interests [2] fall into what is called “Big Data” today, focusing on flexible, scalable services for massive n-D datacubes such as spatio-temporal sensor, image, simulation, and statistics data. Rigorous foundational work has led to several patents and more than 130 scientific publications. Our rasdaman array engine [3] is in operational use on hundreds of Terabytes, soon Petabytes, and has effectively pioneered a new research field, Array Databases [4]. A series of awards has recognized the innovative character and its success, among them the European IT Prize, Winner of the Copernicus Masters Big Data Challenge, Winner of the NASA WorldWind Europe Challenge, and the Geospatial World Forum Innovation Award. In July 2016, US magazine CIO Review picked our technology into their list of best-of-breed in Big Data [5].

Applying this technology to problems in Earth, Space, and Life science and engineering (and beyond) I continuously have the honor of exchanging with leading domain experts, allowing me to work in a wide range of research fields and their data handling needs.

By combining theoretical foundations and practical experience I had the opportunity to contribute “datacube” standards in critical domains, often chairing the corresponding working groups: in ISO, extending SQL with arrays, often dubbed “Science SQL”; in the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), massive spatio-temporal Earth datacubes, such as satellite image timeseries and meteorological simulation output. The OGC “Big Earth Datacube” standards suite, Web Coverage Service (WCS), has received extraordinary take-up by other standardization bodies (like ISO and INSPIRE), open-source projects (such as OpenLayers, QGIS, NASA WorldWind) and commercial vendors (such as ESRI) alike.

Participating as a CODATA Executive Committee member would tap into this body of experience, and allow leveraging synergies between several relevant bodies by fostering exchange and harmonization:

• With my standardization work, I strongly promote data principles, policies, and practice internationally. Among others, I lead ISO 19123-2, OGC WCS and WCPS, and I am a member of the OGC Architectural Board. Through an active interchange with the manifold communities that meet in CODATA I can more actively take up their requirements so that the standards produced reflect the real community needs in science and engineering.
• With my Array Database research I am advancing the frontiers of data science. In organizations like RDA and EUDAT I promote modern data management principles into Earth, Space, and Life sciences. In RDA, I chair, with my respected colleagues, the Big Data Interest Group, Geospatial Interest Group, and Array Database Assessment Working Group. This cross-fertilization can be amplified in an Executive Committee position.
• I actively mobilize data capacity with the open-source tools my group is contributing to the community.
• Based on my specialization in scientific data services I can serve to educate communities about the best use of today’s manifold technologies available. Again, an Executive Committee position can multiply the effect and impact of this work.
• My current role in bridging organizations can be leveraged advantageously for CODATA work. Currently busy in CODATA Germany, RDA, OGC, ISO, W3C, EarthServer, and INSPIRE I can extend this bridging work into EarthCube, Future Earth, GEOSS, UN ISDR, and more. This can help lever­aging synergies, avoid reinvention of wheels, and achieve compatibility of community standards.

To increase the impact of CODATA in the scientific communities, some activities are of prime importance:

• expand membership with respect to countries and entities represented;
• actively liaise with organizations in the fields by creating, spotting, and materializing synergies;
• and mobilize CODATA members to actively contribute to CODATA work.

With my background, experience, network, and interest I hope to be able to foster these goals for and with CODATA, based on the acknowledged ideals of science and engineering.

1. http://www.peter-baumann.org
2. https://www.jacobs-university.de/lsis
3. http://www.rasdaman.org
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Array_DBMS
5. http://bigdata.cioreview.com/vendor/2016/rasdaman

This is the eighth in the series of short statements from candidates in the forthcoming CODATA Elections. As an existing member of the CODATA Executive Committee, Anil Kumar is applying for re-election as an Ordinary Member.  He was nominated by the Indian CODATA National Committee.

Currently, I am a J C Bose National Fellow of Science & Research Board (SERB) of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi and working at the Physical and Materials Chemistry Division of National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India. My first encounter with the importance of data in science came during my post doctoral research at Berkeley and Norman USA some 35 years ago. Since then, I have devoted all my career in collecting and modelling of thermodynamic data of solids, molten phase and liquids. I have also been active in the areas of materials and the biologically active molecules, modelling of a large body of such data thereof. I have been active in the CODATA activities since 1998 first for spreading data science in India and then later as a member of National CODATA committee.

Being the Chairman of National Committee on CODATA at INSA, New Delhi, I plan to devote my time in developing and educating people in collecting reliable data that can stand the test of time. I had undertaken this activity from 2012 by teaching in the universities and other places. This is due to the fact the scientists in Indian sub-continent still have not been able to appreciate the role of data science and a majority of them are not aware of the  activities of CODATA at International level. I also aim to concentrate on the concern related to production of faulty or inaccurate data that lead to misunderstanding about a scientific phenomena and therefore incorrect inputs for any technological advancement.

With my past and current involvement in recommending funding to research activities, I very seriously would like to undertake the activity of revenue enhancement for CODATA. I would like to be a dedicated EC member for joining a group of members who can work in this direction.

This is the seventh in the series of short statements from candidates in the forthcoming CODATA Elections. As an existing member of the CODATA Executive Committee, Alena Rybkina is applying for re-election as an Ordinary Member.  She was nominated by the Russian CODATA National Committee.

Alena Rybkina is chief of the Innovation Technologies Sector of the Geophysical Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (GC RAS).  She is young but internationally recognized specialist in implementation of modern information and visualization technologies in scientific research and industrial domain. Important goals of her activity are data technological studies and development of spherical projection systems aimed at efficient analysis, demonstration and popularization in data research and management.

Alena is actively involved in the operations of the CODATA Task Group “Earth and Space Science Data Interoperability”. She co-authored the “Atlas of the Earth’s Magnetic Field”, which was one of the outstanding TG achievements in 2013. She is experienced in the organization of international and national events co-organized by CODATA and devoted to promotion of data science in Russia and other countries. In particular she was the principal organizer of the conferences  “Electronic Geophysical Year: State of the Art and Results” in 2009, Pereslavl-Zalessky (http://egy-russia.gcras.ru/index_new_e.html), “Artificial Intelligence in the Earth’s Magnetic Field Study. INTERMAGNET Russian Segment” in 2011, Uglich (http://uglich2011.gcras.ru/index_e.html), “Geophysical Observatories, Multifunctional GIS and Data Mining” in 2013, Kaluga (http://kaluga2013.gcras.ru/index_eng.html) and “Data Intensive System Analysis for Geohazard Studies” in 2016, Sochi (http://sochi2016.gcras.ru/).  She is currently leading the initiative related to the organization of Regional CODATA Eurasia conference, which will be held in September-October 2017.

As she is involved in a number of international projects, including those developed by the International Institution for Applied System Analysis (IIASA, Laxemburg, Austria), she aims to promote efficient global collaboration for improved knowledge, understanding of the earth system, disaster risk mitigation and sustainable development.

Alena is geologist currently working on the paleoenvironmental reconstructions and the Earth’s magnetic field studies. She has taken part in geological expeditions in Russia, Ukraine, France and Italy for collecting paleomagnetic data and providing correlations between changes in magnetic data and global astronomical cycles.

As an active young researcher she will be a dynamic and effective member of the CODATA Executive Committee.  Alena’s focus is on promoting CODATA activities in the data and research communities as well as the organization of CODATA events to involve new members as well as young scientists. As a specialist in data visualisation technologies she can also share her experience in modern technologies of data mining.

This is the sixth in the series of short statements from candidates in the forthcoming CODATA Elections. As an existing member of the CODATA Executive Committee, LI Jianhui is applying for re-election as an Ordinary Member.  He was nominated by the Chinese CODATA National Committee.

Fourteen years ago, I attended the 18th International CODATA Conference — “Frontiers of Scientific and Technical Data” in Montreal. That is the first time I joined CODATA activities, and since that time, I have been very happy to be a member of CODATA Family. Nine years ago, I was lucky enough to be designated Secretary-General of the Chinese National Committee for CODATA (CODATA-CHINA), and since then I have lead CODATA-China activities, organizing bilateral & multilateral data cooperation，and engaging in CODATA international events. Two years ago, I was elected as the Ordinary Member of the CODATA Executive Committee. And today, it’s my honour to be nominated as the candidate of the Ordinary Member of the CODATA Executive Committee again.

As a professor in CNIC (Computer Network Information Centre of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), My job and research is focused on scientific data infrastructure design and development, scientific data citation and publication, data intensive computing and data science. I have been leading scientific data sharing in Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for more than 10 years, and I am now pushing forward research data sharing and data publication in China. I led the design, development and implementation of the CAS Scientific Data Cloud (http://www.csdb.cn) for data sharing, big data analysis and large-scale data-Intensive scientific research. I initiated an open access data journal “China Scientific Data” (http://www.csdata.org) to enable research data sharing so that it can be accessible and intelligible. I am also leading the development and services of the National Data Sharing Network for Basic Research, funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, which coordinates scientific research data sharing among universities, institutions and other research organizations. I will lead to develop a big research data life-cycle management system in the next three years, also funded by Ministry of Science and Technology.

As the Secretary-General of CODATA-CHINA, I organized a series of activities to help promote and improve scientific and technical data management and use, and increasing the impact of CODATA in China. In 2014, I initiated and convened the National Scientific Data Conference in China. As a national level academic conference on scientific data, it is now held annually. In 2012，I also initiated the International Training Workshop for Developing Countries on Scientific Data co-sponsored by CAS, CODATA and CODATA-CHINA. The training workshop was successfully held in 2012, 2014 and 2016 in Beijing. This is the best practice and demonstration for CODATA capacity building. Additionally, Paul Uhlir and I have coordinated a series of China-U.S. roundtable meetings on scientific data cooperation from 2006 to 2014, jointly hosted by CODATA-CHINA and U.S. National Committee for CODATA, serving as a catalyst and coordinating body for bilateral cooperation on scientific data practices and policies at the academic and national level in each country.

As an ordinary member of CODATA Executive Committee, I have actively engaged in CODATA activities: I have assiduously performed the role of Task Group liaison, I have helped organize Task Group meetings in China, for example, the China data citation workshop, and I have helped increase CODATA’s visibility in developing countries.  I have also acted as an expert linking with other international organizations: for example on the OECD GSF expert group for Data Infrastructures and the on the Working Group for the Science International Accord on Open Data in a Big Data World.

This is a Big Data era, in which scientific discovery will be increasingly driven by big data. As a very unique international organization, CODATA should be and can play a leading role in this tread. We have identified our three priorities: data policy, frontiers of data science and capacities building. We need to make these happened, through our task groups, working groups, national members, union members and supporting organizations, linking with the other organizations, for example, WDS, GSF,ISDE, GEO, etc. I believe my expertise will help CODATA carry out its missions, objectives and key initiatives of Strategic Plan, especially in capacity building in developing counties, open data policy and best practice in developing countries.

This is the fifth in the series of short statements from candidates in the forthcoming CODATA Elections. Hannu Koskinen is a new candidate for the CODATA Executive Committee as an Ordinary Member.  He was nominated by the Finnish CODATA National Committee.

Personal background and expertise

I am currently the Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Helsinki (UH/PHYS). It is a large physics department (about 300 employees, 35 professors). Our staff is deeply involved in CODATA-related research in elementary particle physics (in collaboration with Helsinki Institute of Physics, which is responsible for the Finnish CERN-activities), in space sciences (ESA and ESO activities), in atmospheric research and climate change (in collaboration with the Finnish Meteorological Institute) as well as in materials research (e.g., simulations of surface phenomena).

My scientific background is in theoretical and experimental space plasma physics. During my professional career of more than 35 years I have participated in about dozen scientific instruments onboard ESA, Swedish and Russian spacecraft to the near-Earth space, Mars, Venus, and comet Churymov-Gerasimenko as well as in the future ESA mission to Mercury. In addition, I have had administrative roles in other missions: of particular relevance to CODATA is my membership of the Steering Committee of ESA’s upcoming dark-energy mission EUCLID. My institute has the responsibility for one of the data centres that will be located in Finland. As a space scientist I have witnessed the evolution from the modest data volumes in the 1980s to the explosion of present-day data sets.

While I have no previous involvement in CODATA activities, I have long experience in national committees of ICSU-related organizations COSPAR, IUGG and URSI, having served 12 years (2000 – 2011) as the Chairman of the COSPAR National Committee and the Finnish COSPAR Council Delegate. Furthermore, I have wide experience in various committees of ESA (e.g., 13 years as the national Delegate in the Science Programme Committee and 3 years as the Chair of the Programme Board of the Space Situational Awareness Programme) where big data issues, including data quality and policy, have often been dealt with.

Statement

The explosion of the data volumes is a key challenge in today’s and future scientific research practically in all fields of research. This requires clear and efficient data policies and practices and significant intellectual investments at the frontiers of data science. These two priorities in the CODATA strategy must not be seen as separate issues, as data management and distribution are useless without novel methods in dealing with data and, vice versa, the grand scientific challenges cannot be met without access to the best data sets. The third priority, to mobilize the data capacity to low and medium income countries is of utmost importance and urgent to deal with due to the major societal grand challenges (climate change, megacities, etc.) these countries are facing.

A central issue in all these segments is open data and how the openness and strict requirements of data quality and reliability can be fit together. If elected to the Executive Committee I would emphasize in particular the questions of open data.  As the first Executive Committee member from Finland, I would work in close collaboration with the newly established National Committee for Research Data that is representing my country in CODATA on behalf of the Council of Finnish Academies.

Hannu Koskinen
University of Helsinki, Department of Physics

This is the fourth in the series of short statements from candidates in the forthcoming CODATA Elections. John Broome currently serves as CODATA Treasurer and is seeking re-election.  He was nominated by the Canadian CODATA National Committee

I am the current CODATA Treasurer, and I am willing to continue as Treasurer for a 2^nd term.

My scientific experience with data includes over 30 years in government and the private sector working on research data stewardship, architecture, policy, management, modelling, integration, and access.   When I retired from Natural Resources Canada, I was responsible for data management policy and strategy for the Earth Sciences Sector.

During my career, I have been an active member of numerous international groups focused on policy for improving the management, accessibility and interoperability of scientific and geospatial data.  These activities include contributing to the OneGeology initiative , representing the IUGS at the CODATA General Assembly, serving on the CODATA Executive Committee, and chairing the Canadian National Committee for CODATA.

Additional professional Details: John Broome – LinkedIn.

During my first term as Treasurer my achievements included leading reform of the member dues structure to improve the alignment between member GDP and dues, improving the budgeting, financial tracking, and audit processes to facilitate monitoring CODATA’s financial status, and improving communication of finances to the Executive Committee and Officers.

If I am selected by the CODATA community to continue for a 2^nd term as Treasurer, my priority would be to work with the Executive Committee and Officers to increase CODATA’s revenue to permit further growth of our activities.  CODATA is poised to expand its activities but there is a need for funds to retain additional human resources in the secretariat to free up our Executive Director to concentrate on strategic activities.    Increasing our revenue will likely involve modifying the current business model to include new revenue streams possibly through contracted work or partnerships with other organizations.  I believe CODATA’s future is bright and I hope I am able to continue to contribute to its growth.

This is the third in the series of short statements from candidates in the forthcoming CODATA Elections. Mary Zborowski currently serves on the Executive Committee and is seeking re-election.  She is nominated by the Canadian CODATA National Committee.

Mary Zborowski has served on CODATA’s Executive Committee since 2012 (CODATA GA, Taipei) and has been involved with CODATA Canada since 1998. Since 2004, she has been Executive Secretary for the Canadian National Committee for CODATA (CNC/CODATA). Under her management, the CNC has thrived and attracted new key participants from Canada’s principal granting agencies, government departments, collaborative working groups, data-related initiatives, and large scientific research projects such as NEPTUNE Canada and International Polar Year – which projects involve widespread collaboration and result in large data collections. Mary has also been involved with the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) and was Executive Secretary to the Canadian Research Data Strategy Working Group, a multi-disciplinary group of universities, institutes, libraries, granting agencies, and individual researchers with a shared recognition of the pressing need to deal with Canadian data management issues.

Mary’s personal enthusiasm and commitment have combined with her organizational abilities to effectively promote many of CNC/CODATA’s initiatives, such as the Sangster Award for Early Career Professionals, communicated among all graduate universities in Canada and in similar networks, and awarded biennially in coordination with CODATA’s International Conference. She was editor of the bilingual serial, Report on Data Activities in Canada, presented to CODATA at its General Assemblies as evidence of Canada’s contribution to shared priorities. She has served on the Editorial Board of CODATA’s Data Science Journal, in which journal she also has published articles. She has contributed to CODATA’s Newsletters, and also to publications of own organization, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and to its networks. NRC ranks CNC/CODATA as one of the highest ranked among its sponsored CNCs, thereby ensuring ongoing support of the Canadian National Committee as well as its involvement with CODATA International.

Mary’s background in atomic and molecular physics was followed by over 20 years’ experience in Library and Information Science, working extensively with databases, catalogues, collaborative projects, and delivery of information services to researchers. She is especially attuned to the complexities relating to the design and delivery of services during times of rapid technological change. Since 2008, Mary worked at the corporate level, preparing ministerial documents detailing NRC’s performance strategy and resultant impact to the Canadian innovation community. In recent years, she has planned and chairs sessions at international conferences held in Canada, for the purpose of promoting the interests of both CODATA and WDS.

Mary has been a technical advisor to CODATA on web and publishing matters since 1998 and it is through her personal and active involvement that CODATA’s web site was moved to a new and economical infrastructure in 2013, then redesigned and re-launched. She is the current Liaison officer to the CODATA Fundamental Constants Task Group and has participated in the organization of SciDataCon2014 in New Delhi, India, and SciDataCon2016 in Denver, CO, USA.

This is the second in the series of short statements from candidates in the forthcoming CODATA Elections. Paul Laughton currently serves on the Executive Committee and is seeking re-election. He is nominated by the South African CODATA National Committee.

I am researcher and lecturer in the field of information and knowledge management. I have a post at the Department of Information and Knowledge Management at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa  as a Senior Lecturer. I have a passion for data, particularly the management of data, and conducted my PhD thesis on the management of research data. I am actively involved in the research data sphere in South Africa and Southern Africa and work along-side a number of bodies in South Africa that promote research data. I have for a long time (since 2008) been involved in the Early Career Data Professional activities, which was a wonderful introduction to the functioning of CODATA and the individuals that contribute to the great work done by CODATA. Being elected as an Ordinary Committee member between 2014 and 2016 was a great experience and gave me the opportunity to learn from the many capable individuals that serve on this committee, I would like to stand for re-election as I believe I have more to offer this community and my African regional perspective and Early Career focus brings an important dynamic to the Executive Committee. I believe the future of research data has so much potential and poses number of complex challenges that require a different kind of thinking. I hope my contribution to this committee assists in taking science closer to the next phase of inquiry.