AIBS Joins EOL and NEON Institutional Councils
It is entirely befitting AIBS's status as an umbrella organization for the biological sciences with almost 200 member societies and organizations that we have joined the institutional councils of two extremely ambitious and large-scale science projects that are both now well underway: the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) and the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON).
EOL aims to serve as an online reference source and database for every one of the 1.8 million species that are named and known on this planet, as well as all those later discovered and described. EOL will be used as both a teaching and a learning tool, helping scientists, educators, students, and the community at large gain a better understanding of this planet and all who inhabit it.
AIBS joins the EOL Institutional Council:
* To provide strategic advice and guidance to the EOL Board
* To promote awareness of EOL internationally
* To bring a broader perspective to the EOL Board from a wide range of institutions and programs
* To identify individuals, programs and other activities for possible involvement in EOL
* To provide advice on possible funding and other resources
* To assist in evaluating performance against EOL’s planned outcomes
AIBS's appointees to the EOL Council are AIBS Executive Director Richard O'Grady and Paula Mabee, Dept. of Biology, University of South Dakota, a former President of the Society of Systematic Biologists.
NEON is a continental-scale research platform for discovering and understanding the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecology. NEON will gather long-term data on ecological responses of the biosphere to changes in land use and climate, and on feedbacks with the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. NEON is a national observatory, not a collection of regional observatories. It will consist of distributed sensor networks and experiments, linked by advanced cyberinfrastructure to record and archive ecological data for at least 30 years. Using standardized protocols and an open data policy, NEON will gather essential data for developing the scientific understanding and theory required to manage the nation’s ecological challenges.
AIBS has been the recipient of NEON-planning funds from the National Science Foundation since 2002 and now becomes a Founding Member of the Institutional Council of the NEON Inc. organization that will build and run NEON. Institutional members include colleges, universities, museums, scientific associations, and ecological or environmental non-profit institutions interested in promoting the purposes and activities of NEON.
AIBS's appointees to the NEON Inc. Council are AIBS Executive Director Richard O'Grady and AIBS Board-member Eric S. Nagy, Department of Biology, University of Virginia, the Associate Director of the Mountain Lake Biological Station.