Executive Committee Nominations for 2025-2026

Listed below are the nominees for open positions on the TDWG Executive Committee for terms spanning 2025-2026.

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Nominations are open for positions on the Executive Committee of Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) for terms spanning 2025-2026.

This is an opportunity to lead the development of biodiversity informatics and work with an enthusiastic team to improve the quality and interoperability of biodiversity data.

TDWG is an international organization that promotes the digitization, integration, and sharing of information about the world’s biodiversity. TDWG provides a forum where individuals, projects, and institutions who manage biodiversity data can come together to share expertise and promote interoperability by promulgating standards and best practices. TDWG also publishes the Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS) journal where papers on issues related to information technology and biodiversity science can be published. The TDWG Executive Committee oversees the work of TDWG. It coordinates TDWG’s Interest and Task Groups, manages the review and ratification of standards, manages the organization’s journal, and organizes the annual meeting. These responsibilities are set forth in the Constitution and detailed further in a supplementary document.

Positions on the executive are staggered two-year terms, such that no more than half of the Committee will be new each year. Towards the end of every calendar year, TDWG holds elections for terms that are expiring and need to be filled for the coming year. Officers elected this year will serve terms in the caledar years 2025 and 2026. The the schedule and procedures for nominations and the election are detailed below, followed by open positions, their responsibilities, and nominees.

Nomination procedure

To nominate someone for one of the positions above, first confirm that the nominee is willing to accept the responsibilities of the office. Then work with the nominee to send a brief statement of the nominee’s background and vision (maximum 400 words) to the TDWG Secretary (secretary@tdwg.org). Self nominations are accepted. All nominations must be complete and received before 15 November 2024.

Election procedure

The TDWG Secretariat will post the names of nominees below with their statements background and vision. Shortly after nominations are closed, the Secretariat will distribute ballots to all institutional and individual members in good standing. In the case of institutional members, we will notify the primary and secondary contacts, but only one ballot response will be accepted. If you are uncertain about your membership status, please inquire with the TDWG Treasurer (treasurer@tdwg.org). Institutional ballots will be weighted as five individual ballots.

General responsibilities

All officers, including subcommittee chairs, have voting rights on the Executive Committee, and are expected to participate in the Committee’s conference calls, which usually last one hour twice a month. Executive Committee members are expected to find their own support to attend the annual conference.

Offices open for election

All officers elected this year will serve a term of two calendar years, 2025-2026, except the Deputy Chair, who will serve an additional two years as Chair.

Deputy Chair

Responsibilities (serves as Deputy Chair 2025-2026, then as Chair 2027-2028)

No nomination received.

Secretary

Responsibilities

Visotheary Ung

Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris

Background
I am a biologist by training, I have a masters degree in population genetics but started my professional career at the CNRS (French national center of scientific research) working as a network and systems administrator for 7 years. In 2007, I came back to my first love in science: Systematics, and in 2008 started to attend TDWG meetings as the scientific communication officer for the Xper research group in Paris. In that role, I had the chance to be involved in European projects (EDIT and ViBRANT) which showed me that collaborative work is the key to success. At the same time, I started a PhD on Southeast Asian biogeography and methodology for comparative biogeography which I defended in 2013. I am now a biodiversity informatics project manager and biogeographer based at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris.
I am French and grew up in Paris, but was born in Phnom-Penh (Cambodia). I am very proud of my dual culture, which I see as a richness and I am convinced of its good influence on me. Being part of two different cultures, two different worlds has taught me that it is always possible to build bridges, to bring people together. This is exactly what TDWG is about: to bring together biologists, scientists and developers with the purpose of providing the whole community with standards, best practices and tools.
Vision
My first TDWG meeting was in 2008 in Fremantle and I have not missed one ever since. I am thrilled to be more involved in TDWG activities. As Secretary, I will focus on maintaining good communications within our community: among the Executive Committee, members of TDWG Interest and Task Groups and users of TDWG standards.
I see my role as a connecting hub between everyone, providing clear communication about our processes (creation and use of TDWG standards) and documentation. I have a will to support all members of the Executive Committee, especially our chair and hope to be a good proxy.
I strongly believe that standards are essential to improve biodiversity data sharing and implementing interoperability of software and systems. TDWG standards have been key to my own research and I will continue pushing forward their use within my research community, locally at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle and on a larger scale to the French scientific community.

Treasurer

Responsibilities

Chandra Earl

National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), Arizona State University, USA (residing in Maryland)

Background
I currently work as a biodiversity informatician for the U.S. National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and primary software developer for the NEON Biorepository portal, ensuring implementation of FAIR principles in data management, quality, integration and access of NEON biodiversity and sample data. In previous lives, I’ve held a consultancy contract with OBIS as an eDNA scientific officer and held the Joshua M. Copus Memorial Fellowship at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawai‘i.
I received my graduate degree in Genetics & Genomics from the University of Florida, where my dissertation research focused on building tools for “big data” biodiversity analyses, specifically genomics, machine learning and diversification metrices. Due to this, I maintain an ongoing Research Affiliation with the Florida Museum of Natural History.
The theme of my personal research is focused on large-scale biodiversity data and analyses using natural history collections and as such I have broad experiences with developing pipelines for phylogenetics, bioinformatics, machine learning, geographic modelling, and digitized specimen mobilization. I enjoy research collaboration and have contributed to various biodiversity initiatives spanning across taxonomic scales, including insects, mollusks, plants, mammals and fish. One day I’ll get to birds and herps….maybe.
Vision
Although I’m an acting member of a handful of professional societies, biodiversity information is ‘home’. As Treasurer of TDWG, I aim to use my experience within TDWG and connections with other societies to establish a transparent, efficient, and sustainable financial framework that ensures TDWG’s long-term success. I am keen on seeing TDWG evolve into an organization with solid financial health through strategic partnerships, grants, and fundraising, ensuring that we can continue to grow and support all members of the community.

Outreach and Communications, Chair

Responsibilities

Nicky Nicolson

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, UK

Background
I worked for about fifteen years in a variety of software development roles at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew [1] helping researchers and curators manage and mobilise scientific information. Effectively this was a research software engineer role [2], it just predated the term. Ten years ago I switched from the technical track into research, where I completed a doctorate in machine learning, applying density based clustering to our digitised specimen data to identify collectors, expeditions and related specimens gathered from a shared collecting event [3]. I took software development practices with me - things like revision control, dependency management, build automation and continuous integration - to help manage the research process. My work was applied in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) data portal where it helps users navigate between related records [4]. Now I’m senior research leader in digital collections at Kew. We are nearing the end of our specimen digitisation project [5], and I’m interested in how we can use our digitised specimen data to build the “digital extended specimen”, and how we do this in an open and inclusive way. I am developing a toolkit called “echinopscis: an extensible notebook for open science on specimens” [6], which was partly supported by Open Seeds [7], an open science mentoring and skills development programme.
I’ve been involved in TDWG throughout my career, and none of my work would have been possible without the data standards and the community of practice that TDWG has fostered.
Vision
In the past couple of years I have started to work much more closely with the open science community. One crucial distinction that they emphasise is between initiatives which are “open by default” vs those which are “open by design” [8]. As the latter is more intentional, it ensures that participation information is made explicit via resources like roadmaps, contribution guidelines and codes of conduct, all of which help new people to become involved. I see these practices as small steps which we can encourage in TDWG affiliated projects to help grow the community and make it more inclusive.

I would like to help us build better links between our community and those who are working on software sustainability. In the UK, the software sustainability institute [9] was instrumental in getting the research software engineer job title recognised by funders; today there are RSE networks worldwide [10]. Many in the TDWG community perform RSE-like roles and integrating with these networks can help raise visibility for these roles with our funders. A similar effort is underway to ensure that roles which are focussed on data curation are recognised [11]. Building these links will help develop skills, build new collaborations and grow the community.

Communication: Keeping in touch with TDWG members and reaching out to new ones is important, and social media has been a key communication tool. This is an evolving landscape, particularly as many step back from Twitter. I would like us to first refresh our LinkedIn profile [12], as many more people are using this platform, and then review potential use of other microblogging platforms like mastodon, bluesky and threads. We should use these channels to share details of relevant events and outputs throughout the year, as well as to promote our annual meeting. I would also encourage TDWG members to complete github profile pages [13] so that the full extent of our community is visible. As more of us are starting to work with artificial intelligence and machine learning, I’d also like to build a TDWG profile on HuggingFace [14], the community hub for sharing models, datasets and application prototypes.

References

  1. Kew science: https://www.kew.org/science
  2. Are you a research software engineer? https://society-rse.org/what-is-an-rse/
  3. Automating the construction of higher order data representations from heterogeneous biodiversity datasets https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/19620
  4. New data-clustering feature aims to improve data quality and reveal cross-dataset connections https://www.gbif.org/news/4U1dz8LygQvqIywiRIRpAU/new-data-clustering-feature-aims-to-improve-data-quality-and-reveal-cross-dataset-connections
  5. Kew specimen digitisation https://www.kew.org/science/digitising-kews-collections
  6. echinopscis: an extensible notebook for open science on specimens https://echinopscis.github.io/
  7. Open seeds: https://we-are-ols.org/openseeds/
  8. Mozilla open leaders initiative participant review (includes section on open by default vs open by design) https://heatherburns.tech/2019/05/01/what-i-learned-in-the-mozilla-open-leaders-initiative/
  9. Software Sustainability Institute: https://www.software.ac.uk/
  10. International RSE communities: https://society-rse.org/international-rse-organisations/
  11. People in Data: https://www.turing.ac.uk/research/research-projects/people-data
  12. TDWG (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/groups/993557/
  13. Managing your profile README: https://docs.github.com/en/account-and-profile/setting-up-and-managing-your-github-profile/customizing-your-profile/managing-your-profile-readme
  14. HuggingFace: https://huggingface.co/

Regional Representatives

Responsibilities

Rep for Africa:

No nomination received.

Rep for Asia

Daphne Z. Hoh - ORCID

Taiwan Biodiversity Information Facility, Taipei, Taiwan

Background
I have been trained as a marine scientist since completing my BSc and PhD studies. My research focused on sea turtle conservation, with a specific emphasis on fungal infections in sea turtle eggs and sea turtle’s foraging ecology. My research has spanned various aspects of this issue, including pathogen genomics and pathogenicity, utilising high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics methods. I co-founded TurtleSpot Taiwan, a citizen science initiative that collects sea turtle sightings to support local involvement in science. Recognising the significance of generating extensive primary biodiversity data through my work, this experience sparks my interest in biodiversity informatics. I have since then actively engaged in TDWG activities, serving as a Program Committee member for associated conferences and contributing as an open data ambassador, mentor, and trainer. For the past years, I have been a postdoctoral researcher at the Taiwan Biodiversity Information Facility (TaiBIF), where my work focuses on evaluating biodiversity data gaps, mobilizing data, and building capacity for data use. Additionally, I contributed to translating critical materials on biodiversity data standards, such as Darwin Core terms and vocabularies, GBIF’s DNA publishing guidelines, and related course materials, from English to Chinese, making these resources more accessible to Chinese-speaking audiences.
Vision
In some Asian countries, especially Taiwan, communities are making notable progress in biodiversity informatics. However, they often lack visibility and engagement at the international level, primarily due to language barriers. I see this challenge echoed across other Asian countries, where biodiversity informatics efforts are advancing locally but remain isolated from the global network of biodiversity information standards and practices. I believe that fostering connections and collaborations between the Asian community and the international community will stimulate new developments and ultimately enhance biodiversity informatics and conservation efforts on a global scale.
With broad collaboration experience in biodiversity research, data management, and capacity building, I am committed to bridging this gap. As a multilingual researcher, I have worked alongside national and international partners to promote biodiversity data standards and have seen firsthand the impact of shared resources and strong networks. As I prepare to transition from East Asia to Southeast Asia in the near future, I hope to connect communities across linguistic and regional boundaries, facilitating discussions and knowledge sharing within the TDWG community.

Rep for Europe

Laurence Livermore

The Natural History Museum, London

Background
I am passionate about open data and increasing collaboration and community building to enable better data mobilisation from natural history collections. I have been working on community projects in Europe for over ten years, including two iterations of the EC-funded SYNTHESYS projects, ICEDIG, DiSSCo Prepare and Mobilise projects. Recently, this has included the proposal writing and leading the collaborative development of Specimen Data Refinery platform in SYNTHESYS+ and the managing the creation of Digitisation Guides for DiSSCo Prepare.
I am an active participant in SPNHC and CETAF (especially the Digitisation Working Group), and intend to remain active during my potential tenure. I have extensive experience of collaboration outside of Europe, including delivering e-taxonomy training in four continents, delivering a GBIF BID workshop in Jamaica, and digitisation of Malaysian collections as part of national digitisation initiative. I attended my first TDWG conference in 2014 (slides), and have attended all in-person European conferences since (2019 and 2022). Both myself and my digitisation team use TDWG standards on a day-to-day basis in our projects and are keen to give more user feedback on implementation and use.
I am an experienced editor of formal publications (Zootaxa, ZooKeys, BDJ) and for special collections. For examples of community presentations and outreach see my Figshare profile.
Vision
There are multiple exciting initiatives across Europe which will benefit from global connectivity, including the continued development of DiSSCo and the establishment of national DiSSCo nodes.
As Regional Representative for Europe, I would maintain and strengthen connections between the other Regional Representatives and promote TDWG’s role in developing and promoting the use of biodiversity data standards. DiSSCo, and related initiatives around the world (e.g., GBIFs regional programmes, iDigBio, and ALA), are more effective and efficient when they collaborate and share approaches. Our community still has more to gain from establishing more shared practices, protocols, and training programmes. I would like to promote the co-development of more regional initiatives, or at least help connect people and initiatives that have the potential to benefit by working together.
I am keen to promote wider participation in SPNHC and will ensure TDWG’s work is brought to CETAF’s Digitisation Working Group and Information Science and Technology Committee. Over the next two years I will be working to develop the DiSSCo-UK node and want to ensure that our work benefits the wider community, that we implement TDWG standards, and encourage wider participation in TDWG activities.

Rep for Latin America

Juan Manuel Saez Hidalgo

Instituto de Ecologia y Biodiversidad (IEB), Chile

Background
I am a Computer Science researcher at Chile’s Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB). I manage and develop the Digital Herbarium, supporting biodiversity research by ensuring its digital assets are organized, accessible, and up-to-date. Additionally, I lead data analysis for various projects, utilizing my expertise to support decision-making in research grants and tenders.
The IEB aspires to be a world-class institute that conducts groundbreaking scientific research to support sustainable development in Chile. As part of this mission, the IEB operates as a training center, providing advanced education for undergraduate and postgraduate students and mentoring young researchers. While not all research can be published in scientific journals, the IEB remains committed to connecting science with the challenges facing the country’s production industries and with public institutions responsible for environmental and biodiversity care.
I hold a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Chile, have two years of experience in ecology, and aspire to pursue a doctoral degree in Statistics at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. This doctorate aligns with my strong interest in data science and its application to biodiversity research.
Vision
My vision is to serve as a representative within the Taxonomic Databases Working Group (TDWG), advocating for the inclusion of Latin America in TDWG’s global initiatives. I aim to contribute to a more inclusive and comprehensive approach to global biodiversity research and conservation by bridging regional expertise with international biodiversity data standards.

Rep for North America

Erica Krimmel - ORCID

Independent Biodiversity Information Scientist, Sacramento, CA, USA

Background
I am an information scientist (MLIS) whose expertise lies in designing and implementing systems to increase the digital availability and impact of biodiversity data. Since 2006, I have worked in and around natural history collections–during my undergraduate education, at a research field station, at nonprofit museums, in the context of a national resource (iDigBio), and now as a freelance consultant. My driving goal is to make biodiversity data of all scales FAIR and fit-for-use in applied contexts from academic research to public policy. I have been a member of the TDWG community since 2017, when I began helping produce the Darwin Core Hour series. Since then, I regularly attend and present at annual meetings, participate in standards development processes, and benefit from the essential framework that TDWG provides for biodiversity data mobilization.
Vision
In order to succeed, TDWG needs individual buy-in on data standards from many, many people with diverse experience and priorities. My technical background in information architecture, data management, data standards, and data processing is complemented by a human-centered design perspective. As the Regional Representative for North America, I would bring this perspective to my work with TDWG and hope to promote TDWG in ways that make it easy for people to adopt and implement standards. Beyond standards, TDWG provides a unique interdisciplinary space for community knowledge sharing and coordination. I want to be a part of cultivating this space and lowering barriers to participation.