SedDB Team Members

Kerstin Lehnert (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University) is an igneous petrologist who has played a leading role in the development and implementation of the PetDB database since its instigation in 1996. She is co-founder of the EarthChem consortia, a collaboration of major geochemical databases to advance an integrated data management system for solid earth geochemistry. She is lead PI on the NSF grant to build a Solid Earth Sample Registry (SESAR) that will provide globally unique identifiers for samples to allow sharing and linking of sample-based data in a distributed, interoperable Geoscience cyberinfrastructure. She is co-PI on the RIDGE2000 and MARGINS Data Management System. Kerstin is also Administrative Director for Research at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

Kerstin is the lead PI of the SedDB project and is responsible for the overall project management including coordination among the collaborating groups, timely completion of all project tasks, dissemination of results, and outreach to the community.

Steven L. Goldstein (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University) applies radiogenic isotopes to mantle geochemistry, crust-mantle evolution, igneous petrology, oceanography and paleoceanography. He is acutely aware of the need for SedDB from his involvement in both hard and soft rock studies. He is the Chair of the ISES-CI SAMPLES (Sample Archive and Management PLanning for the Earth Sciences) Working Group, which is working to save endangered terrestrial samples, a member of the GERM (Geochemical Earth Reference Model) Steering Committee, and initiated the Geochemistry Editors Roundtable formed in 2003 to coordinate publication standards and policy.

Steve supervises data compilation and data entry tasks at LDEO with a focus on the Central American and Izu-Bonin testbed areas, and assists with the overall system design.

Richard W. Murray (Boston University) has ~20 years of experience in the analysis and interpretation of geochemical data of sediments, sedimentary rocks, and porewaters, and has been examining the geochemistry of the central and equatorial Pacific Ocean since the early 1990’s. He is extremely familiar with the DSDP/ODP/IODP drilling programs, as he and/or his students have participated on 7 ODP cruises in the past 15 years. He has served on the ODP/IODP Scientific Measurements Panel (SciMP, charged with overseeing all shipboard measurements, data acquisition, and data management) for the past 8 years, most recently as co-chair. He was also a member of the Janus Steering Committee that helped guide the development of the ODP data management system.

Rick supervises data compilation and data entry tasks at Boston University focusing on the equatorial Pacific testbed area, and contributes to the overall system design.

Nicklas G. Pisias (Oregon State University) was recently named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union for his contributions in development and application of time series analysis techniques in the field of paleoceanography. He has spent over 30 years conducting research on various aspects of the paleoceanography of the central and eastern equatorial Pacific on time scales from the latest Pleistocene and Holocene to the Eocene. All these studies made extensive use of paleoceanographic time series based on isotopic, geochemical and micropaleontologic data sets. In addition, Pisias has published on data analysis techniques for the study of multivariate geochemical data sets.

Nick’s main focus is the functionality of the user interface. Together with Terri he has defined requirements for the data products and the necessary data processing and analysis tools, and developed the data processing and analysis algorithms for the interface.

Walter is responsible for supervising the collaboration between PaleoStrat and SedDB and to aid the development of SedDB by providing insights and developments of the PaleoStrat team to SedDB developers.

Terri King was the first paleoceanographer to use higher order time series analysis (bispectra and crossbispectrala) to analyze long, multi-million year time series. King was the chair of the scientific steering committee for the development of the ODP Janus database, and has spent the last years working in the commercial sector developing data management systems.

Terri works with Nick on the data processing and data analysis tool. Both will also contribute to the development of analytical and sedimentary metadata requirements, and to data compilation.

Annika Johansson (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University) is the Data Manager of SedDB and its sister database PetDB. She has a background in Biogeochemistry, Vertebrate Paleontology, and Physical Anthropology.

Annika is responsible for data and meta data entry and providing support to the user community.

Sri Vinayagamoorthy is a systems and software engineer and leads the IT division at CIESIN, an internationally recognized data center and developer of scientific research and decision-support tools. He led the design, development, and implementation of the new PetDB system and is leading the development and implementation of the SESAR system. In his various capacities at CIESIN he has extensive experience in information systems architecture and design, database design, data and systems integration and interoperability, remote sensing and GIS applications, and tools for visualization, mapping and online analytical processing (OLAP).

Sri is responsible for line management of personnel at CIESIN that will include a range of expertise from database development to JSP coding and web design.

Branko Djapic is a database engineer and database administrator with more than 5 years experience in the design, implementation, and operation of enterprise level relational databases. His current interests include design and implementation of Generic Geochemical Databases to support Cyberinfrastructure projects, implementation of geospatial databases and technologies to support serving geospatial data via OGC web services, and IT project coordination/management.

Branko is responsible for design, implementation, and operation of the SedDB database and the coordination of development activities.

Frank Pascuzzi is a software developer with more than 20 years experience in designing and implementing Internet and distributed software systems in both corporate and academic environments. His corporate background includes working in research labs at IBM and Intel, and Frank also worked as a Technical Architect for Adobe. Frank is currently a Senior Analyst Programmer in the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), a center within the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Frank is responsible for the design and implementation of the SedDB web application and related development activities.

Annie Gerard is a web and database interface designer at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).

Annie is responsible for the user interface design, update, and maintenance.

Robert Arko is Lead Programmer/Analyst in the Marine Geology & Geophysics Division at LDEO, with over ten years of experience in marine, airborne, and coastal field work as well as shoreside data analysis, Web/database design, digital library design, and data archive management. He is lead programmer for the Marine Geoscience Data Management System, and a senior programmer for the Digital Library for Earth Systems Education DLESE.

Bob's focus is on metadata standardization and compatibility with the Marine Geoscience Data Management System.