About Our Team

Executive Team

Nirav Merchant

Nirav Merchant

PI and Project Director, University of Arizona | nirav@email.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

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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

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Co-PI and Science Lead, University of Arizona | tswetnam@email.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

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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.

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Cloud Native Services

Edwin Skidmore
Director, Infrastructure, University of Arizona | edwin@cyverse.org

Illyoung Choi
Research and Development Engineer, University of Arizona | iychoi@email.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

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

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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

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

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Project Operations

Tina Lee
User Engagement Officer, University of Arizona | tinal@cyverse.org

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Science and Training

Michele Cosi
Data Scientist III, University of Arizona | cosi@arizona.edu

Jeffrey Gillan
Data Scientist III, University of Arizona | jgillan@arizona.edu

Jason Williams
Training Lead, DNA Learning Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | williams@cshl.edu

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