Thursday, February 13, 2014

eScience Seminar with Steven Roberts, Wednesday, February 19 at 4:30 in CSE 691

Please join the eScience Institute Wednesday, February 19 at 4:30 pm in the
Bill and Melinda Gates Commons (CSE 691)

Steven Roberts (UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences):

Genomics on the Half Shell: Making Science more Open

Technology has significantly changed how research is done in biology. Along
with this shift, it is increasingly easier and advantageous to operate in
an open science framework. In this presentation I will begin by providing
an overview of our research efforts with particularly attention to
challenges in data analysis. Research in our lab focuses on characterizing
physiological responses of shellfish to environmental change, examining
impacts and adaptive potential from the nucleotide to organism level. A
core component of this includes investigating the functional relationship
of genetics, epigenetics, and transcription. In our research we leverage
several computing infrastructure solutions that I will describe. In
addition, our lab practices Open Notebook Science. I will describe the
practical aspects of how we accomplish this including addressing some of
the concerns and realized advantages. Beyond online lab notebooks, we are
continually experimenting with different ways to use online resources to
engage with a larger audience and improve science communication. I have
found this is a complex balance of time and effort versus impact and will
discuss how our lab group attempts to reach this balance.

Biography:

Steven Roberts is an Associate Professor in the School of Aquatic and
Fishery Sciences where his research centers around characterizing the
response of aquatic organisms to environmental change. Prior to coming to
the University of Washington in 2007 he was at the Marine Biological
Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and received his PhD from the
University of Notre Dame. In graduate school he spent most of his time
transferring agarose gels, and now he spends most of his time transferring
files.

Upcoming Seminars:

* February 26, 4:30 PM** (CSE 691)
    John Wilkerson  (UW Center for American Politics and Public Policy)
    Tracing the Flow of Policy Ideas in Legislatures: A Text Reuse Approach

* March 5, 4:30 PM** (CSE 691)
    Chris Bretherton  (UW Atmospheric Science and Applied Mathmatics)
    Big Data meets Big Models: Weather Forecasting and Climate Modeling

** Pizza at 4:15