Who are we?

The BioInformatics Office was formed in April of 2006 with the following mandate:

The Office of BioInformatics will be responsible for establishing and implementing STRI’s bioInformatics web strategies, policies, and procedures, with the overall guidance and direction of STRI’s sub-Director. The BioInformatics Office will work with STRI scientists and staff to develop and implement procedures within the organization to migrate and manage biological and physical monitoring data on the web.

The guiding objective is to identity candidate databases, and provide the technical assistance and training necessary to migrate STRI’s data to the web into a standardized data management system that provides global access to the data, simple-to-use web-based data management analytical tools, and integration with other data sets (both STRI and non-STRI). The office will leverage existing technological resources, such as Discover Life (www.discoverlife.org) and the InterAmerican BioDiversity Information Network (IABIN), to meet this objective.

Steven Paton

Head of the Office of BioInformatics

For 15 years Steve was the Data Manager for the Terrestrial component of the Environmental Science Program (ESP), as well as the PI for the ESP's Terrestrial Physical Monitoring Program. Steve is now responsible for overseeing the operations of the BioInformatics Office.

Julien Bessiere

Web mapserver and PHP Programmer

Julien is in charge of putting geo-referenced data bases on the web using map server technologies. He is also the chief programmer for our cooperative efforts with the InterAmerican Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN).

Kip Gupta

PHP Programmer, Web data manager

Kip is in charge of creating and maintaining the BioInformatics web site, as well as making non-georeferenced data available through our and other's web sites. Kip is also in charge of creating links between our site and Discover Life.