About Our Teams
Executive Team
Leadership and management of the project
Cloud Native Services
Cloud services and underlying infrastructure
Core Software
Discovery Environment and Data Store development
Project Operations
Project management, communications, and user engagement
Science and Training
Science, support, and training
Executive Team
Eric Lyons
PI and Project Director, University of Arizona | ericlyons@email.arizona.edu
Dr. Eric Lyons is an Associate Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Arizona. Prior to obtaining his PhD in plant biology at the University of California, Berkeley, he worked for six years as a computational biologist and programmer in several industry settings including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and software companies. He has expertise in large project management and served as Program Director for NSF's Division of Integrated Organismal Systems from 2018-2019. His research is in bioinformatics and comparative genomics, and he is the founder of CoGe, a premier platform for comparative genomics, which now operates on the CyVerse CI under its Powered by CyVerse program.
Nirav Merchant
Co-PI and UArizona Cyberinfrastructure Lead, 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
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 UArizona 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
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@email.arizona.edu
Sean Davey
Software Engineer, Cloud Native Services, University of Arizona | sdavey@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
Fenn Garnett
Undergraduate Student Software Engineer, Cloud Native Services, University of Arizona
Amy Johnson
Software Engineer, Cloud Native Services, University of Arizona | amy@cyverse.org
Ryan Schneider
Undergraduate Student Software Engineer, Cloud Native Services, University of Arizona
Mariah Wall
User Interface and Application Developer, University of Arizona | mgwall@cyverse.org
Zhuoyun Xu
Research Engineering Technician, Cloud Native Services, University of Arizona | xuzy73@cyverse.org
Core Software
Sarah Roberts
Team Lead & Senior Software Engineer, Core Software, University of Arizona | sarahr@cyverse.org
Samantha Boleyn
Software Engineer, Core Software, University of Arizona | sboleyn@arizona.edu
Tony Edgin
Senior Software Engineer, Core Software, University of Arizona | tedgin@cyverse.org
Urvika Gola
Data Engineer Intern, Core Software, University of Arizona
Ian McEwen
Software Engineer, Core Software, University of Arizona | mian@cyverse.org
Paul Sarando
Software Engineer, Core Software, University of Arizona | psarando@cyverse.org
John Wregglesworth
Software Engineer, Core Software, University of Arizona | wregglej@cyverse.org
Project Operations
Cindy Cowen
Assistant Director, Project Operations, University of Arizona | cowenc@cyverse.org
Tina Lee
User Engagement Officer, University of Arizona | tinal@cyverse.org
Science and Training
Michele Cosi
Science Analyst, University of Arizona | cosi@arizona.edu
Jeffrey Gillan
Data Scientist III, University of Arizona | jgillan@arizona.edu
Elliot Hagyard
Undergraduate Student Software Engineer, University of Arizona
Jason Williams
Training Lead, DNA Learning Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | williams@cshl.edu
