Executive Team
Nirav Merchant
PI and Project Director, University of Arizona | nirav@arizona.edu
Nirav Merchant is the Director of the Data Science Institute at the University of Arizona, whose mission is to connect and align UArizona researchers with institutional expertise, computational resources, and infrastructure to enable investigators to ask and solve complex questions and achieve outcomes not easily attainable as solo researchers or within purely disciplinary teams. He oversees the comprehensive computational cyberinfrastructure for biomedical research at UArizona, supporting diverse projects ranging from large-scale clinical NGS analytics platforms to mobile health (mHealth) interventions. With over 25 years of experience at the University of Arizona as a technology strategist and architect for multi-institutional projects involving scalable data analytics, Nirav directs CyVerse's CI strategy and also co-teaches an interdisciplinary course in Applied Cyberinfrastructure Concepts, designed with CyVerse, XSEDE, and FutureGrid infrastructure.
David Micklos
Co-PI and EOT Lead, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | micklos@cshl.edu
David Micklos is the founder and Executive Director of the DNA Learning Center (DNALC) at CSHL. He is the CyVerse Education, Outreach, and Training (EOT) Faculty Advisor and collaborates with CyVerse senior management and outside advisors to develop EOT strategy and long-term plans. Micklos collaborates with NSF-, NIH-, and HHMI-supported programs to integrate CyVerse into education programs at the national level. He is the PI of several major projects that use CyVerse cyberinfrastructure: an NSF Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) grant to introduce RNA-Seq analysis into undergraduate education, an NSF Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grant to train community college faculty in DNA sequence and barcode analysis, an NSF Research Collaboration Network (RCN) to stimulate course-based undergraduate research (CURE), an NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) for high school student barcode projects exploring the ecology of Long Island, and a Pinkerton Foundation grant to support research mentorships in DNA barcoding for underrepresented minorities in New York City high schools.
Tyson Swetnam
Co-PI and Science Lead, University of Arizona | tswetnam@arizona.edu
Dr. Tyson Swetnam is Research Assistant Professor of Geoinformatics at the University of Arizona BIO5 Institute. His first career was as a wildland firefighter and fire management specialist for the US National Park Service and USDA Forest Service. He earned his PhD from the University of Arizona in watershed management, with an emphasis on natural resource management, dendrochronology, and Geographic Information Systems. Swetnam's research involves developing spatial data cyberinfrastructure for CyVerse and collaborating with a diverse group of projects in the life and earth sciences. Swetnam's areas of interest include image analysis, large-scale visualization, and data science literacy. He also develops curricula, teaches workshops, and is an active member of The Carpentries and Research Bazaar collaborations.
John Fonner
Co-PI and UT Cyberinfrastructure Lead, University of Texas at Austin | jfonner@tacc.utexas.edu
John Fonner earned a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where he used a blend of experimental and computational techniques to study binding interactions between peptides and conducting polymers for implant applications in the nervous system. He joined the Life Sciences Computing group at TACC as a Research Associate in 2011 and has served on a number of projects that help life sciences researchers leverage advanced computing resources, both through training and the development of better tools and cyberinfrastructure. Dr. Fonner led the development of the CyVerse Software Development Kit (SDK), one of the CyVerse Application Programming Interfaces that enables developers to integrate and access CyVerse backend services.
Cloud Native Services
Edwin Skidmore
Director, Infrastructure, University of Arizona | edwin@cyverse.org
Illyoung Choi
Research and Development Engineer, University of Arizona | iychoi@arizona.edu
Andy Edmonds
Senior Systems Administrator, Cloud Native Services, University of Arizona | aedmonds@cyverse.org
Jeremy Frady
Systems Administrator, Cloud Native Services, University of Arizona | jeremyfrady@cyverse.org
Leonardo Soto Hernandez
Student Software Engineer, University of Arizona
Victoria Quang
Student UX/Accessibility Developer, University of Arizona
Mariah Wall
User Interface and Application Developer, University of Arizona | mgwall@cyverse.org
Zhuoyun (John) Xu
Software Engineer, Cloud Native Services, University of Arizona | xuzy73@cyverse.org
Core Software
Sarah Roberts
Team Lead & Senior Research Software Engineer, Core Software, University of Arizona | sarahr@cyverse.org
Tony Edgin
Senior Research Software Engineer, Core Software, University of Arizona | tedgin@cyverse.org
Tanmay Agrawal
Student Software Engineer, University of Arizona
Sue Min Kwon
Student Software Engineer, University of Arizona
Ian McEwen
Research Software Engineer, Core Software, University of Arizona | mian@cyverse.org
Paul Sarando
Research Software Engineer, Core Software, University of Arizona | psarando@cyverse.org
John Wregglesworth
Research Software Engineer, Core Software, University of Arizona | wregglej@cyverse.org
Science and Training
Michele Cosi
Data Scientist III, University of Arizona | cosi@arizona.edu
Gabe Barros
Student Application Maintainer, University of Arizona
Jeffrey Gillan
Data Scientist III, University of Arizona | jgillan@arizona.edu
Naman Jain
Student Software Engineer, University of Arizona
Bitan Mani
Student Database Manager, University of Arizona