RDA L4RD IG Co-Chair Voting Candidate Information

Descriptions are available for the RDA L4RD IG Co-Chair candidates as well as their interest in running. To vote for the candidates, visit the RDA L4RD IG Co-Chair Voting Form. Read about the RDA L4RD IG on the RDA website.

Swinnerstone Miheso Eugene

Uganda Technology and Management University - Africa

Bio: A Management and ICT Oriented individual, currently pursuing a PhD. in Management (Mbarara University of Science and Technology) with a prospective PhD. in Computer Science (Application Process for University of Liverpool). Holder of Executive Masters in Business Administration (UTAMU) and MSc. in Information Systems (Makerere University). I am interested in Human Computer Interaction with bias in Ergonomics, Management with bias in Project Planning and Management, Artificial Intelligence with bias in Machine and Deep Learning and lastly in Database Systems with bias in Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. Am an outgoing individual who Serves as a Church Minister (Pure Purity Ministries). Juggling between Schooling, Family, Work and Church is a very interesting experience.

Interest in serving as a co-chair: I am interested in being the co-chair because I am in the learning space. I would use this opportunity to understand and advice effectively especially on the infrastructure and models of approach in regard to RDM. I am always researching and a learner willing to be critiqued.

Santosh Kumar Mishra

Population Education Resource Centre (PERC), Department of Lifelong Learning and Extension, S. N. D. T. Women’s University, Mumbai, India (Retired on June 30, 2020) - Asia (including South Asia and Southeast Asia)

Bio: I was employed as with the Population Education Resource Centre, Department of Lifelong Learning & Extension (previously known as: Department of Continuing & Adult Education & Extension Work), S. N. D. T. Women's University, Mumbai, India (from where I retired on June 30, 2020). I underwent training in demography & acquired Ph. D. Areas of my research include sustainable development, gender issues, non-formal education, & allied subject subjects. I have authored (a) 5 booklets/handbooks/teaching-learning materials; (b) 4 books; (c) 22 book chapters; (d) 35 articles published in national journals, & 36 in international journals; & (e) 2 monographs. Also, I have presented 34 papers at national conferences, & 14 at international conferences. I have been awarded travel grant for attending 19 international conferences. Also, I have contributed to 156 e-debates. Also, I have reviewed (a) proposals for 20 international conferences, & (b) 160 manuscripts for 77 international journals.

Interest in serving as a co-chair: I am interested in serving as a co-chair for the RDA L4RD Interest Group (IG), as basically I am researcher who needs to learn more about data management. The research data, in today’s world, have become a primary research asset for various stakeholders, across the regions of the globe. It is for this reason that the libraries have looked after written research assets for centuries and now tackle the challenge of adapting their function to making data reliably accessible and re-usable. In the past, I have been associated with several national and international bodies in various capacities. In the capacity of co-chair, I can contribute to active organization and maintenance of data throughout the research process, & archiving of the data.

Kassim Mwitondi

Sheffield Hallam University - Africa

Bio: Kassim obtained his PhD in Statistical Data Mining in 2003 from the University of Leeds, School of Mathematics. A well–rounded multi-disciplinary professional, he also holds MSc degrees in Statistics, Computing and Finance with many years of experience in teaching, research and consulting across continents. His research interests are in extracting knowledge from multi–faceted data, using machine and deep learning techniques. A regular presenter at international conferences on data science and related fields , he has published extensively in those areas. He is a keen promoter of interdisciplinary approach to scientific research, open data and open science and he has secured and managed interdisciplinary research projects. His current research work focuses on the application of deep learning and other machine learning techniques in interdisciplinary modelling of real–life phenomena within the domain of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)–viewing each SDG as a Big Data node.

Interest in serving as a co-chair: As an African, Diaspora, I have observed with a keen interest the gaps in capacity within the infrastructure of data access and sharing for the developing world. Across Africa, for example, these channels are fading and the gaps are reflected in the library communities around research data management. The digital revolution experienced across the developed world has not been replicated in the developing (digitally underdeveloped) world, which impedes interoperability. As an African academic in the west, with regular interactions with the continent, I will engage colleagues on the continent through libraries, institutions and data centres for a sustainable attainment of RDA's mission of interoperability, as part of SDGs attainment.

Kalum Priyanath Udagepola

Scientific Research Development Institute of Technology Australia - Oceania/Australia

Bio: Prof. Kalum Udagepola is working for the Scientific Research Development Institute of Technology Australia as a Senior Principal Research Fellow (Professor), Director in Department of Information and Computing Sciences and an International Visiting Scholar. He was recognized as a fellow grade member of Australian Computer Society, British Computer Society, Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, senior member of IEEE and ACM and many other professional bodies. He was recognized as a Chartered Scientist by the Science council. He obtained Professional Certificate in Data Science from Harvard University, USA. He is currently on the editorial board of the many Journals and Conferences. He has reviewed more than 1000 research papers, convened international conferences and contributed to the development of global Data standards. He has reviewed more than 1000 research papers contributed to the development of global Data standards. www.researchgate.net/profile/Kalum_Udagepola/stats

Interest in serving as a co-chair: I represent the largest and fastest growing society members and region 20+ countries. With three decades of experience in teaching, researching and academic administration possess the comprehensive skillset and grasp of innovative instructional approaches to affect positive overreaching outcomes in this Co-Chair role. My strengths as a professional and professor ere best reflected by the following information from my professional experience demonstrating my unique abilities. I used my 360-degree policy reviewing experience in the RDA L4RD works. At the 2018 World Bank Land Conference, I was Chair a session (Harnessing the Benefits from Interoperability) and I promoted data science societies unprecedented services to the members countries.

Monday Sunday ADIAHA

Nigeria Institute of Soil Science - Africa

Bio: I am a Scholar, a Researcher and a Scientist. I holds an Advance Certification in Scientific Data Management from Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) Trieste, Italy. I was a Speaker at the Joint Abdul Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics-International Atomic Energy Agency (ICTP-IAEA), International School on Radioactive Waste Cementation hosted at ICTP. I have also undergone numerous advanced training and make several presentations at ICTP. I am a member of the Soil Science Society of Nigeria (SSSN), International Union of Soil Science (IUSS), Agricultural Society of Nigeria (ASN), EU Research Data Alliance, ICID among other local and international honorary professional bodies. I holds the Grand Leader for Peace Honor– 2015 among other awards. African Scientists Directory: https://africanscientists.africa/business-directory/adiaha/ Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4BIIXPIAAAAJ&hl=en

Interest in serving as a co-chair: I am interested in the Libraries for Research Data (L4RD) Interest Group Co-Chair in-other to drive and sustain the existing success recorded in the group. I am passionate about open data, data sustainability and open science. Co-chairing the L4RD group is one way my continuous contribution to the open data world can be sustain, as it holds more interns of space and opportunities for global advancement of science and beyond. I promise to sustain and expand the Group success, while looking forward to working and mingling with global players in open libraries and beyond. I have a vision of creating, maintaining and sustaining a global achieve of accessible and reusable data pole.

Stanislaus Agava

Tangaza University College - Africa

Bio: Agava Stanislaus is currently the Chief Librarian at Tangaza University College (TUC), Nairobi, Kenya. He holds a Master of Library and Information Science from Kenyatta University. He also holds a Master of Information Technology from the University of Pretoria in South Africa where is he is currently pursuing a PhD in Information Studies. His PhD thesis is on Data literacy with the aim of developing a data literacy framework for researchers in Kenyan Universities. Agava also teaches information literacy skills at TUC. He is a husband and father to two children.

Interest in serving as a co-chair: My interest in Research Data developed through my interaction with users in the library and my teaching of information literacy. Through interactions, users would request for help on how to manage their data. It is then, in my teaching of information literacy that I felt there was a need to introduce a skill that empowers users, especially researchers on how to deal with data. Since then my interest in data has steadily grown. As a co-chair of the RDA L4RD Interest Group, my interest is to advocate for the role of university libraries in Africa to take advantage of their services, expertise and network to introduce data literacy among researchers.

Lawrence Nderu

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology - Africa

Bio: Lawrence Nderu is a Lecturer and a researcher in the Department of Computing at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT- Kenya). He is also a Senior Instructor at JENGA school. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science specializing in AI and Fuzzy Logic, from the University of Paris VIII, France and a Master’s degree in Software Engineering from JKUAT. His current research interests are Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Mobile Application Development. He is also a member of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) and a member of CODATA (PASTD) Preservation of and Access to Scientific and Technical Data in/for/with Developing Countries (PASTD).

Interest in serving as a co-chair: Why I would like to serve as a co-chair for the RDA L4RD Interest Group Most developing countries especially in Africa, still maintain the libraries in the traditional sense. The need for developing world librarianship to support the modern needs of data-driven support for research and learning is even growing. As a co-chair of this group, I plan to promote the interaction between the researcher and the libraries in adapting the model standards of data management in support of teaching and research.

Naresh Kumar

Central University of Haryana, India - Asia (including South Asia and Southeast Asia)

Bio: I am working as Assistant Librarian and In-Charge of School of Engineering and Technology Library at Central University of Haryana since Dec 2016. I have received Employee of the Year Award 2019 by Central University of Haryana; Best Paper Award at Bobcatsss International Conference 2014 at Barcelona, Spain; Research Data Alliance (RDA) European Early Career Scientists Working with Data Award (Mar 2014) at Dublin, Ireland; I also received Junior Research Fellowship by University Grants Commission and Erasmus Fellowship by European Union and Digital Library Learning (DILL) Consortium Fellowship. I have been accepted for Summer Internship at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland; National Library of Estonia; Oslo University, Norway, and at CNR, Pisa, Italy. Besides this, I have got published 2 books and 17 other publications. Know more about me through - https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8539-2730 https://kumarnaresh.weebly.com/

Interest in serving as a co-chair: I am associated with RDA since 2014 through interest and working groups namely preservation e-infrastructure, metadata standards, RDA for Asia, and data in context and libraries for research data. https://www.rd-alliance.org/users/naresh-kumar As Co-chair of RDA L4RD Interest Group, in guidance and coordination with Chair, I would explore possibilities of identifying need, skills required, and ways to offer digital research data service by libraries in Asia, as I have worked on digital preservation through projects like Presto4U. Being a Librarian and having direct contact with research scholars and by support of various librarians within Asian countries, I would try to resolve issues of research data collection, storage and access.

GOH Su Nee

Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) - Asia (including South Asia and Southeast Asia)

Bio: Su Nee is Deputy Director and Lead for the RDM Team in the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Library in Singapore. She played an instrumental role in the development of the university research data policy and the university data management planning (DMP) template in 2016, followed by launch of the institutional open access research data repository in 2017. She is currently involved in the development of research data classification, closed repository for sensitive research data, e-learning modules, repository certification and DMP submissions data analysis to address institutional research data related risks. She recently presented ‘Building capabilities for RDM services’ to 60 COAR-Asia participants from 12 countries, and another one to a national group in Singapore on institutional research data repositories and sensitive research data. She is co-chair for the COAR-Asia 2021 meeting and has participated in past IDCCs as Session Chairs.

Interest in serving as a co-chair: As a RDA L4RD Interest Group Co-Chair, I hope to stand on the shoulders of giants to gain new perspectives while value-adding to the activities and outputs that will that will benefit the bigger community.