This is the fourth in the series of short statements from candidates in the coming CODATA Elections at the General Assembly to be held on 27-28 October 2023.  Audrey Masizana is a candidate for the CODATA Executive Committee as an Ordinary Member. She was nominated by Botswana

Dr Audrey Masizana is a Senior Lecturer and former Head of Department of Computer Science at the University of Botswana. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from University of Manchester UK (2004). He is also Fellow of Botswana Academy of Sciences (FBAS) since 2021 and Global Health International Scholar of  University of Pennsylvania, USA (2023-2026).

As a member of Botswana CODATA National Committee, she is a strong advocate and passionate of the adoption of Open Data Open Science Policies and Instruments locally and across the continent. Currently she is the Chair of the development of  the Botswana Open Data Policy established by the Botswana Presidential Task Force (Smart Bots) in March 2023, the outcome of which could provide the leadership and adoption in the African SADC region. In 2021 she was elected to serve for 2 years into the Executive Committee of the CODATA for International Science Council.

She has over the years gained enormous experience in spear heading academic networking platforms including  chairing conferences such as Information Technology for Development (IASTED Africa 2014, 2016), International Conference in Cyber-Security and Information systems conference series referenced in ICICIS 2016 and here.  Also, the International Data Week (IDW 2018) spearheaded by the University of Botswana. She has served as a member of the African Technical Advisory Committee which formed part of the first committee that established the African Open Science Platform in 2017. She is also one of the innovators of the VizAfrica Network and chaired the second VizAfrica Conference in 2019 delivered in collaboration with CODATA. She continues to serve in the organizing committees of the subsequent IDW and Viz Africa conferences.

As Head pf Department,  she made contributions to the promotion of science and technology by providing leadership in the establishment of fostered local and regional collaborative projects around Hi Performance Computing (HPC) & Data Science Research, eHealth Research , Intelligent Systems Research and Open Data. She has served at national bodies such as the National Cyber Security Strategy Development Committee (2016) and its new Implementation Committee (2021).

Audrey is passionate in interdisciplinary post graduate research around Scientific Application of Data for Intelligent Decision Making for which she also conducts external examining for other universities. She is a well-seasoned researcher with  50+ publications. Currently serves as a Project Investigator of a project in Botswana named Kamogano  that aims to evaluate the flow of clinical information from and to the front-line clinicians within Botswana Health Information Systems in collaboration with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She is also a PI of another named MLCOVID19 conducted by the University of Botswana which aims to apply machine learning techniques to predict COVID-19 progression amongst patients in Botswana through risk analysis on survival and mortality rates.

This is the third in the series of short statements from candidates in the coming CODATA Elections at the General Assembly to be held on 27-28 October 2023. Pam Maras is a candidate for the CODATA Executive Committee as an Ordinary Member. She was nominated by the International Union of Psychological Science.

Pam Maras was elected first female President of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) in 2016 she is now past-president on  IUPsyS Executive Committee, she is a Fellow, Past President, and Past Honorary General Secretary of the British Psychological Society and a Chartered Scientist (CSci) with the UK Science Council. 

As the Global body for psychological science IUPsyS is a  founding Union of the ISC. Over two million psychologists are represented by IUPsyS members, who collect or use data in primary, secondary or published form;  e.g. on evidence informed  policy direction,  public behaviour compliance and mental health during the pandemic. 

Pam  represents IUPsyS on CODATA and is a DRUM Ambassador. She is committed to Equality in Science and represents IUPsyS on the Standing Committee on Gender Equality in Science (SCGES). 

Pam is Emerita Professor of Psychology at the University of Greenwich, London and where she held senior University roles including chair of the independent committee for institutional compliance with ethical requirements including data stewardship. Pam has attracted considerable research funding with international  collaborations, including in Africa, Australasia, China, Europe (including France, Netherlands, Spain, and Italy), the Nordic countries, North and Latin America, and South-East Asia. She is often asked to comment in media and has provided evidence to policy makers. She has over one hundred publications most recent of which were independently rated as internationally excellent or outstanding in the 2021 UK national assessment of research excellence.

Pam’s research  moved from experimental psychology to  applying psychological science to social situations in education, including testing psychometric measures in different geographical contexts to ensure cultural relevance. Data collection has included surveys and quasi experimental designs. She believes regions should set their own agenda and be able to engage in the ‘open science movement’ as contributors and recipients.  

CODATA is in a unique position in the ISC as the global body to represent international science in all its forms in the promotion and dissemination of science. The ethical and open access of data for public good can only be achieved through geographic and disciplinary collaboration, which includes all areas of the science community and  all regions of the world.  Behavioural sciences should  be an equal partner in international science.  A challenge is to ensure that scientists collectively ‘buy in’ to processes including for data that are less easy to curate from the social and behavioural sciences. 

As a psychologist Pam’s contribution if elected would at an interdisciplinary level include representing and integrating behavioural science into the adoption of principles and policy arising out of CODATA and partners, and at a disciplinary level on human behaviour; both of scientists and on applications of scientific discovery including in areas of interdisciplinary relevance.  Pam’s expertise is relevant to the impact of data, and the ethical development and implementation of policy. This can only  be effectively achieved with integrity if common processes are not only designed but adopted; the latter is likely to be harder than the former and requires a shared understanding and commitment to act and cooperate  – behavioural scientists such as psychologists are  essential to this endeavour.

This is the second in the series of short statements from candidates in the coming CODATA Elections at the General Assembly to be held on 27-28 October 2023.  Phil Bourne is a candidate for the role of CODATA Vice-President. He was nominated by the USA. 

CODATA Statement:  Impacting  the Next Generation

CODATA is a respected, impactful organization. Its strategic connection to the International Science Council gives it a rare platform for driving impact by serving and anticipating the data needs of the world’s scientists, data stewards, and citizen scientists. Hence my interest.

I have spent my whole 40+ year career working with data and the science of data in particular. My interest in data stems from my science as an established biomedical researcher having published over 350 papers, 4 books and started 4 companies. My journey with data led me to co-develop the RCSB Protein Data Bank which became an exemplar scientific database and associated ontology. I was an author of the FAIR principles, the first chief data officer of the National Institutes of Health, a co-founder and the first President of FORCE11, a past member of the US Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI), Founding Editor in Chief of the open access journal PLOS Computational Biology and currently the Stephenson Founding Dean of the School of Data Science at the University of Virginia where we are currently teaching data science to 1000 (!) undergraduate and graduate students. It is this later development which drove me to engage with CODATA as a member of the US National Committee and to write a blog on what I perceive as parallel universes which has received considerable attention, starting with the US National Committee for CODATA. Let me explain.

If I ask those 1000 students and the faculty that teach them at the University of Virginia what they know of CODATA, it will be mostly blank stares. This is unfortunate as both universes have so much to offer each other. To elaborate. CODATA has global reach, the ability to convene and a mandate to do so through a hardworking collection of volunteers. Data science is an explosive field being taught and fielding research in every discipline in just about every institution of higher education. Surely it is time to bring these groups together in ways previously unexplored. This is what I would like to help CODATA with. Data science has the Academic Data Science Alliance (ADSA – I am on the Board) and a variety of chapters within computer science and engineering societies worldwide, but its organization is still very much in a formative stage. There lies the opportunity, a well established organization with a 57 year history meets a fledgling field at a time of unprecedented growth in that field driven by data that is impacting everyone on the planet. It’s time to impact the next generation.  There will not be a better time.

Talk is cheap. In terms of action. I can see various discussions  to begin the engagement. A real doozy would be to have CODATA and data scientists discuss the implication of data generation through generative AI. Thus, if elected, I would work with the CODATA leadership and broader community to find synergies and new areas of collaboration for academic data scientists and data practitioners and policy makers. Possible examples could include a broader partnership in the CODATA/RDA Schools of Research Data Science with ADSA, as well as bringing the successful models in WorldFAIR and other CODATA exemplars like the International Data Policy Committee and the DRUM task group to the academic data science community.   I stand ready to support the new CODATA strategic plan, to be a boundary spanner with other organizations and agencies, and to advise the CODATA secretariat and community as other disruptive technological and policy changes occur.

This is the first in the series of short statements from candidates in the coming CODATA Elections at the General Assembly to be held on 27-28 October 2023.  Andrew Young is a candidate for the CODATA Executive Committee as an Ordinary Member. He was nominated by Australia. 

I am a plant ecological geneticist working in the field of biodiversity science at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia.  My primary role for the last eight years has been as Director of Australia’s National Research Collections (NRCA): https://www.csiro.au/en/Showcase/NRCA.  I am currently a member of Australia’s National Committee for Data in Science (Australian National CODATA committee) and Vice-Chair of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility Executive: https://www.gbif.org/.

My main interest in development of data strategy is in the management of biodiversity datasets to improve ecological management and long-term environmental outcomes and the use of new tools and technologies for collecting and analysing biodiversity data at scale.  I am particularly interested the integration and mobilisation of new types of data from the world’s 2+ billion museum specimens (e.g. genomes, images, sounds, cultural information) and evolving frontiers in data analytics including genomics, high-throughput digitisation, machine learning and artificial intelligence as applied biological collections.   

As NRCA Director I have supported the development of a high-throughput specimen digitisation program as well as the complete refresh of collections data infrastructure.  These changes have significantly improved the digital maturity of Australia’s national collections to support the discoverability, global integration, and use of specimen data under FAIR principles (CODATA Priority 3: Data Stewardship).  The work has also seen significant progress made in advancing our capability in machine learning and AI-based analytics of specimens, in particular with regard to digital trait extraction and species identification.  This is proving valuable with regard to improving the technical capacity of Australia’s biosecurity sector (CODATA Priority 1: Making Data Work). All of these activities and programs have strong underpinning elements in terms of training technical staff, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows (CODATA Priority 4: Data Skills and Education).  I am committed to the development of the next generation of Australian scientists and for the last six years have chaired several of the national Fulbright Foundation Scholarship panels:    https://www.fulbright.org.au/.  

While undertaking these roles and activities I have continued to conduct my own research publishing 100+ peer-reviewed papers.  I have also initiated two major data-intensive national collaborative research programs.  The Biomes of Australian Soil Environments project (now part of Ausmicrobiome: https://www.australianmicrobiome.com/) has used metagenomic analysis of over 2000 sites across Australia to measure and map the continent’s soil microbiome using over 10 billion environmental DNA sequences.  The Environomics Future Science Platform (https://research.csiro.au/environomics/) has led the development in Australia of the application of scalable eDNA based approaches to environmental monitoring including the ongoing development of a National Biodiversity DNA Library.

I am passionate about the opportunities presented by emerging technologies to massively increase the richness of the global biodiversity data ecosystem and committed to taking advantage of the rapidly evolving ability to integrate and interrogate these different data streams to provide the information needed to manage the planet’s critical biological systems into the future in the face of global environmental change.