Last week, it was announced that Ryan Abernathey was awarded the 2021 Charles S. Falkenberg Award. The annual award, which is sponsored by AGU and ESIP, recognizes an early to mid-career scientist who has contributed to the quality of life, economic opportunities and stewardship of the planet through the use of Earth science information and to the public awareness of the importance of understanding our planet.
We would like to extend our congratulations to Ryan and thank him for using his voice to share some very important thoughts after receiving the award. In a Twitter thread, Ryan humbly said, “while I gladly accept the award and the good feelings that come with getting an award, I also want to ask the scientific community to think hard about how to recognize scientific communities and teams, rather than just individuals.” The challenge with individual awards, Ryan noted, is that they may “serve to reinforce the problematic “hero model” of science.”
We couldn't agree more wholeheartedly that teams and communities, not just individuals, deserve recognition. How many people have ever accomplished anything significant without the help of another person or even a village so-to-speak? So many ESIP outputs and activities are fine examples of the power of open, inclusive, and community-based work and we will strive to continue to celebrate and cultivate a culture that values and nurtures collaborations like these. In fact, ESIP Staff members are together (for the first time) this week for a team retreat discussing key topics like this.
Learning leading practices for collaborations is one of the many goals of the ESIP Community Fellows Program and we are currently accepting applications for our 2022 cohort. ESIP Community Fellows are graduate students and post-docs interested in bridging the gap between informatics and Earth science. During their tenure, they become embedded in the work of a collaboration area and have opportunities to network, share their own research, and learn about potential job tracks. Please help us share the call for applications, which closes 10/8, as widely as you can.
And if you missed last week's IT&I Tech Dive on TerrainR – Generating 3D Landscape Visualizations Using R and Unity, you can check out the recording here.
Have a wonderful week,
Megan
Megan Carter Orlando
ESIP Community Director
Sign up for ‘Speaking Up! How Bystanders Can Change the Conversation Around Bias'
As part of ESIP's commitment to promote a healthy and inclusive culture, we are pleased to be offering interactive online training opportunities. The final training session will be:
More info: Have you ever wondered “Why didn’t I say something?” after witnessing social bias—a stereotype, a prejudice or discrimination—that happened in your everyday life? Deciding whether and how to respond to bias is complicated. Understanding what motivates us to speak up, the challenges we face when doing so, and strategies for effective responding can help bystanders to bias better evaluate their options and select effective strategies. In this web-based workshop, you will first learn about bystander reactions to social biases and how these reactions can help or hinder decisions to speak up. Building on this understanding, you will learn key strategies for speaking up that invite reflection and dialogue.
We are excited to bring this opportunity to the entire ESIP community and feel it will help all of us to build a place where all voices are welcome and supported. Please feel free to invite a colleague or someone new to ESIP to participate. This is a free and open opportunity but pre-registration is required.
This Week's Collaboration Area Telecons:
Tuesday: Governance
Wednesday: Soil Ontology & Informatics
Thursday: Schema.org; Air Quality
See the full telecon calendar here. Select the meeting you'd like to attend, login instructions are included in description.
ESIP News
Next ESIP Webinar on Innovation: An Earth and Space Knowledge Commons (9/29 at 1 pm ET)
Join ESIP's next Webinar on Innovation, which is generously sponsored by SAIC, to be given by Ryan McGranaghan (Principal Data Scientist & Aerospace Engineering Scientist at ASTRA Associates). Join to hear Ryan's presentation entitled “An Earth and Space Knowledge Commons,” which will highlight a few efforts toward improved knowledge representation systems, emphasizing the importance of thinking in graphs/networks, and spark a discussion toward a framework to address the asymmetries: a knowledge commons. Learn more and find out how to register at https://www.esipfed.org/news/next-innovation-webinar-earth-space-knowledge-commons.
Joint ESIP & RDA Physical Samples Webinar: Supporting Interdisciplinary Sample
Data Discovery, Integration, and Reuse (10/7 at 4 pm ET)
The ESIP Physical Samples Cluster & the RDA Physical Samples and Collections in the Research Data Ecosystem Interest Group are collaborating on a joint webinar series hosted by RDA-US that kicked off earlier this year in June. Learn more and register for the next installment: https://www.rd-alliance.org/ps-interdisciplinarysampledata-October-webinar.
Call for 2022 ESIP Community Fellows (due 10/31)
ESIP Community Fellows are graduate students interested in bridging the gap between informatics and Earth Science. This fellowship provides students a chance to work closely with professionals in an interdisciplinary, cross-sector group (ESIP collaboration area) on current Earth Science problems. Community fellows become engaged in ESIP collaboration areas as rapporteurs, documenting group activities on monthly telecons and at ESIP’s semi-annual meetings. As fellows become more familiar with collaboration-area activities they may choose to integrate their own research, which can result in publication and additional funding opportunities.
Networking with professionals in your research field
Share research to a broader audience
Learn collaboration best practices
Exposure to potential job tracks – government, industry, academic
Nominate an Organization for ESIP's 2021 Partner of the Year Award (due 10/31)
The Partner of the Year Award honors an ESIP Partner Organization that exemplifies the spirit of ESIP in one or more areas through the sharing of a success story. This award is given annually at the Winter Meeting. The awardee will receive a plaque and two free ESIP meeting registrations. This year, we are looking for partner organizations that have supported the 2021 ESIP theme of Leading Innovation in Earth Science Data Frontiers. We are looking for ESIP partners who have:
Been involved in an activity or interacted with ESIP in a manner that led to an innovation related to Earth science data or information;
Helped the Earth science community use or reuse data in new and creative applications, or
Formed or strengthened collaborations and/or worked to increase the inclusivity and diversity for the ESIP Community.
Learn more here and nominate your own or another organization using this form by 10/31.
Martha Maiden Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to the Earth Science Information Community
In honor of Martha E. Maiden’s leadership, dedication and tireless efforts to nurture ESIP into a vibrant and mature organization, the Martha Maiden Award was established in 2009 to recognize outstanding service to the Earth science information community. This award honors individuals who have demonstrated leadership, dedication and a collaborative spirit in advancing the field of Earth Science information. This award is named for Martha E. Maiden, NASA Program Executive for Earth Data Systems. Ms. Maiden is widely credited for nurturing the ESIP Federation in its infancy and has overseen its growth and maturity. This award will be presented annually at the January meeting. Learn more and submit full nomination package by 10/31 here.
More News
Register Now for SciDataCon 2021 – Virtual Meeting – (Oct. 18-28)
CODATA and WDS have announced that registration is open for Virtual SciDataCon 2021. Registration is free. Please note that you will need to register separately for each session you wish to attend. The programme at a glance may be viewed at https://codata.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/SciDataCon2021-Programme_Registration.pdf where the registration links for each session are also displayed. You can also find the registration link in each session description, accessible form the full programme: https://www.scidatacon.org/virtual-2021/programme/. A few sessions ESIPers have mentioned so far include:
Gateways 2021 Call for Community Participation (due 9/22)
Gateways 2021 (Oct. 19-21) is planned as an opportunity to influence the vision and mission of the Science Gateways Community Institute (SGCI), the gateways community, and the Gateways Conference series. It will offer diverse options for sharing work and networking in the community. The format includes tutorial sessions, panels, presentations in the form of lightning talks, and working sessions. Abstracts related to science gateways may now be submitted. Topics include, but are not limited to:
Architectures, frameworks, and technologies for science gateways
Inaugural World Data System International Technology Office (WDS-ITO) Data Prize (due 12/1)
The World Data System is an interdisciplinary body of the International Science Council promoting universal and equitable access to quality-assured scientific data and associated services. With generous support from Canada’s New Digital Research Infrastructure Organization (NDRIO), the WDS-ITO is running a competition to highlight the use of WDS Regular and Network member data in Virtual Research Environments. 2 cash prizes of CAD$1,000 each will be awarded. In addition to the prize, we will recognize the winners in early spring 2022 and highlight their achievements on the WDS website. Learn more at https://wds-ito.org/data-prize-competition/.
Job Opportunities Channel in the ESIP Slack Workspace
In case you haven't noticed, there is a lively channel in the ESIP Slack where community members can post and view current job opportunities, like the one posted below. Please feel free to peruse and add openings you are aware of. To find the channel, join the ESIP Slack workspace and then join the #job-opportunities channel.
Volunteer as a Data or Software Expert for the Virtual Data Help Desk at GSA 2021, to be hosted during part of GSA 2021 Connects (October 11th-13th, 2021). This event connects researchers with informatics experts familiar with their scientific domain to learn about skills and techniques that will help further their research and make their data and software open and FAIR. To volunteer, please complete this brief form, as soon as possible by Friday Oct. 1st, 2021. Learn more: HERE
Questions/comments? Reply directly to this note or click the button below to email us at staff@esipfed.org
ESIP is funded with support from NASA, NOAA, and the USGS.
