Partners

Laura has a background in Evolutionary and Behavioural Biology. Presently, she is working as a biologist within the biodiversity informatics team at Meise Botanic Garden. In this role, she contributes to various projects aimed at advancing our knowledge of biodiversity.

Lissa has an MSc in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, with experience as an ecological researcher. She has a strong interest in data management and -analysis, and dedicated herself to further learning in the field of statistics and data science. These pursuits seamlessly align with her current role as a Biodiversity Data Scientist for MeiseBG.

Quentin leads MeiseBG's biodiversity informatics team and he is B-Cubed's coordinator. He has played a leading role in several national and international projects related to the publication, dissemination, and analysis of biodiversity data. Quentin has expertise in the digitisation of collections, biodiversity standards, invasive alien species and the analysis of data collected by citizen science.

Louise is a biodiversity informatics researcher at Meise Botanic Garden with an MSc and PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences. She is involved in the project management of B-Cubed and tasks related to training and phylogenetic diversity.

Maarten is a Biodiversity Data Scientist and a Project Coordinator for the DiSSCo Flanders project. He has an MSc in Physics, with experience in systems engineering in aerospace and medical engineering. In 2019, Maarten joined the Biodiversity Informatics team at Meise Botanic Garden, with a strong focus on Linked Open Data and data standards development.

Matthew is a software developer at the GBIF Secretariat working on data interpretation, data quality, standards and output formats. His work is focused on the implementation of the data cubes. 

Tim has a background in engineering and data infrastructure and leads the informatics activities at the secretariat of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). To support GBIF’s successful growth and development as an open data infrastructure, Tim has been involved in drafting and maintaining data standards, developing large-scale data-ingestion pipelines and establishing GBIF’s pioneering citation-tracking system.

Andrew is a Data Partnerships Officer at the GBIF Secretariat, working in supporting the mobilisation and use of GBIF mediated data for decision making through the development of indicators for the Global Biodiversity Framework, supporting data flows from the business sector and promoting regional engagement. His background is in evolutionary biology and conservation, having completed his PhD at the University of Montpellier before moving to work on the science-policy interface within the species programme at IUCN headquarters in Switzerland.

Tim is a conservation ecologist at INBO where he is coordinating invasive species activities from the Wildlife Management and Invasive Species team. His research is focused on surveillance using citizen science, monitoring and open data, impact and risk assessment, risk management, ecosystem restoration and human dimensions of biological invasions. At the interface of science, policy and practice, much of his work is focused on the EU Regulation on Invasive Alien Species. He works a lot with stakeholders, in various LIFE (RIPARIAS, MICA) and other EU-funded projects. Open data, data-driven workflows and information systems are important aspects of his work.

Peter is open data coordinator and team lead for INBO's Open science lab for biodiversity. With over 15 years of experience in biodiversity informatics, his work involves the coordination and development of biodiversity research software, infrastructure and data standards. He (co)maintains several R packages and has standardised and published numerous (GBIF-mediated) datasets covering animal tracking, camera traps, citizen science, invasive alien species and radar aeroecology. Peter coleads the development of the camera trap data exchange format "Camtrap DP" and is a member of the Darwin Core maintenance group.

Ward is a statistical expert at the Research Institute for Nature and Forest and a member of the team 'Biometry, Methodology and Quality Assurance'. He is focused on monitoring schemes, data analysis and reproducible research. He is furthermore involved in supporting scientists with the statistical analysis of their research data.

Toon is an engineer in land- and water management at INBO and a member of a support team for statistical analysis and methodology which stimulates the use of open data and reproducible research practice. He has experience in the development of nature indicators and nature outlooks. Current research projects involve species distribution models, population modelling, analysis of mark-recapture and telemetry data and eco-hydrological monitoring and modelling.  

Duccio is a Full Professor at Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna since December 2019, after having been Associate Professor in Biology and Ecology at the University of Trento, since February 2017. He attained his PhD in 2005 under the supervision of Prof. Alessandro Chiarucci, dealing with remote sensing applied to the estimate of biodiversity. After having collaborated with international researchers from institutions like the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Nottingham (School of Geography, UK), Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (India), University of California Los Angeles (Department of Geography, US), he joined the Fondazione Edmund Mach in Trento in 2009, in the Dr. Markus Neteler's GRASS GIS and Remote Sensing group, promoting open source algorithms for Ecology. Over the years he promoted the use of remote sensing for the study of biodiversity change in space and time, publishing more than 190 ISI papers on this theme.

Shawn is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Giessen in Germany, where he specialises in developing and adapting biodiversity indicators using GBIF data cubes for the B-Cubed project. His background is in ecology and conservation biology. Shawn has a PhD at UCL in London, where he focused on quantifying and improving the reliability and robustness of global biodiversity indicators using statistical and modelling techniques.

Hanno is an ecologist and group leader at the JLU. In his work, he is analysing the spread and accumulation of alien species at large spatial scales and over long time periods. He develops computer models to simulate the dynamics of spread based on human transport systems. Another central part of his work deals with developing workflows to standardise and integrate biodiversity data.

Yanina is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Giessen and the Science coordinator for IPBES Data and Knowledge unit.  She is an ecologist and conservation biologist that enjoys working at the intersection between applied science and policy making. Yanina is from Argentina where she did her PhD at University of Buenos Aires studying land use changes and its effects of wetland birds. Currently, she is working on identifying and developing indicators for biodiversity monitoring that could be used for policymaking. 

Daniyar is an Assistant professor at UOC's Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. With a background in agronomy, an MSc in environmental sciences and a PhD in biology, he is mainly interested in plant biology and ecology, invasive species management, grassland management and biodiversity conservation.

Cristina is a member of UOC's Department of Natural Sciences, lecturing on invertebrate biology and ecology for more than 10 years. She has a keen interest in biodiversity conservation and biological invasions, with a focus on impact assessment of invasive alien species and prioritisation. Her recent work on updating the status of alien and invasive species in Romania included developing collaborations with stakeholders and policymakers.

Katelyn is a senior scientist and is part of the team that produces the South African National Status Report on Biological Invasions. She is also an extraordinary lecturer at the University of Pretoria. Her work focuses on understanding how, when, and where alien species are introduced to new regions, and what can be done to prevent harmful introductions.

John is a principal scientist and a co-editor of South Africa`s National Status Report on Biological Invasions. He is also a core team member of the Centre for Invasion Biology (CIB) at Stellenbosch University. His work focuses on understanding how ecological, evolutionary, and anthropogenic factors interact to shape the current distribution of alien and native organisms, and the consequences of these processes for management and policy.

Tsungai is a principal scientist and a co-editor of South Africa`s National Status Report on Biological Invasions. He is also a core team member of the Centre for Invasion Biology at the University of Pretoria. His research interests are understanding the factors that influence the distribution and impact of alien species and how these can inform policy and management of biological invasions.

Cang is a full Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Research Chair in Mathematical Bioscience. Cang’s research is situated at the interface between mathematics and biosciences. His main interests lie in proposing models and theories for explaining emerging spatio-temporal patterns in ecology. His recent research focuses include unifying the scaling patterns of different biodiversity dimensions and currencies, and modelling the structure and function emergence of ecological networks, especially in the face of global change drivers such as climate change and biological invasions.

Sabrina is a Senior Researcher and trained ecologist currently focusing her research on risk analysis and impact assessments of alien and invasive species. She is generally interested in applied and policy-relevant research. Sabrina is a core team member of the Centre for Invasion Biology (CIB), and Chair of the Environmental Impact Classification of Alien Taxa (EICAT) Authority of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Sandra is a postdoctoral researcher and landscape ecologist interested in macroscale ecosystem dynamics, with an emphasis on applied spatial statistics for biodiversity conservation. With over 20 years of experience living and working in the Kruger National Park, South Africa, her research focuses on exploring the links between ecological patterns and processes to develop a more holistic understanding of ecosystem dynamics in large protected areas.

Mukhtar Yahaya is a PhD student working on "Biodiversity Informatics and Ecological Modelling" in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Stellenbosch University. He focuses on extracting, analysing and interpreting biodiversity data, as well as formulating theoretical models to represent and study underlying processes which drive the dynamics and structures of ecological communities. He uses R programming language to analyse his ecological work. He loves nature documentaries.

Nikol is a science communication expert at Pensoft, with a BSc in Modern languages, cultures and communication, as well as two MSc in Communication and Information and in Digital Marketing and Communication. Nikol is involved in the communication and dissemination activities of several European-funded projects focusing on topics such as agricultural biodiversity, forest health and pollination services.

Lina is a researcher at iDiv working on the interoperability of Data Cubes for EBVs within the frame of the B-Cubed project. She began working with Data Cubes during her doctoral research when she carried out regional assessments of vegetation dynamics across multiple time scales. One of her research interests is focused on big data and time series analysis to understand the past and the present of ecosystems functioning, and how this information can help to evaluate future global scenarios. Previously, Lina worked at the intersection between policy and science, developing biodiversity indicators and deploying decision products such as ecosystem dynamics mapping, wetland detection and delineation reports to guide national environmental policies.

Miguel is originally from Bolivia and his education is in environmental systems. His work has focused on understanding the uncertainty associated with climate model simulations and their impact on biodiversity. He has worked in global change initiatives, bridging the science-policy gap in Latin America, the Caribbean, the U.S. and Europe. He has established strategic relationships and led the implementation of networks and initiatives at local, regional and global levels. Miguel contributed to the Essential Biodiversity Variables framework working within GEO BON, connecting users of biodiversity information with data producers to develop sustainable business models for biodiversity monitoring.

Henrique's research focuses on global biodiversity change to inform environmental policy and ecosystem management. In his lab, he specifically studies the impacts of land-use change on biodiversity and ecosystem services at different scales. At iDiv-MLU, his group conducts fieldwork on rewilding abandoned farmland and develops biodiversity models for future socio-economic scenarios. He actively engages with policymakers through platforms like the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and is currently leading the EuropaBON project. 

Alexis is a research director at Inria with interests in machine learning and computer vision applied to biodiversity. He is the scientific and technical leader of the Pl@ntNet citizen science project which develops a million-users platform based on AI. He is the founder of the LifeCLEF international virtual lab dedicated to the computer-assisted identification of living organisms.

Diego is a tenure-track, junior professor at Inria Université Côte d'Azur in France, specialising in developing machine learning and computer vision methods to solve environmental and Earth observation problems. His research interests include creating more interpretable computer vision methods for species identification and building species distribution models using citizen science and Earth observation data. He holds a PhD from Wageningen University and an MSc in Computation Sciences and Engineering from EPFL in Switzerland.

Maxime is a postdoctoral researcher at Inria Université Côte d'Azur in France. He is interested in the development of machine learning methods for environmental applications. His work is mainly related to methodological themes such as data fusion, deep-learning and the robustness of classification or regression models.

Ana is a well-established researcher in Coastal Ecosystems with focus on: Coastal Ecosystems Ecological Status & Management; Applied Ecology & Nature-based solutions; Environmental Chemistry & Anthropogenic impacts; EU Policies & Ecosystem Services, in a transdisciplinary context. She is a Principal Researcher at the CESAM and the Dept. of Biology of the University of Aveiro where she is currently Vice-Rector for the promotion of quality, communication, effectiveness and efficiency of the University and environmental sustainability of the campuses.

Heliana is a coastal and marine benthic ecologist at the Center for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) and the Department of Biology of the University of Aveiro in Portugal. Her research focuses on pressure-response relationships and on the development and use of ecological indicators to understand trends in ecosystems in relation to anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. She has large experience in environmental monitoring and quality assessments and participated in several international projects and working groups, providing scientific support to the implementation of policies in Water, Marine Strategy, Biodiversity and Nature Conservation domains.