IGA Lecture : “From Ordovician Oceans to Holocene Houses: Three Geological Stories from a Data Manager’s Perspective” by Dr Una Farrell (Trinity College Dublin)

Abstract:

There is a global push to make scientific data open and accessible. Here, I talk about three projects which differ greatly in terms of scope and aims, but which have some common ground in terms of data sharing and structure. First is the ‘Sedimentary Geochemistry and Paleoenvironments Project’ (SGP) – a large collaborative research consortium, which aims to answer questions about deep-time environmental change. Second is ‘Stonebuilt Ireland’, a project which links Irish heritage sites with building stones and quarries. Third is a new project to digitize the TCD Geological Museum collections and make those records available through local and global data portals. In each case, I will outline project goals and highlights so far, and briefly review the data-wrangling going on behind the scenes. 

Biography:  

Una did a BA in Geology at TCD and a PhD at Yale University, working in upstate New York on
exceptionally preserved trilobites. She was Collection Manager of Invertebrate Palaeontology at the
Biodiversity Institute in Kansas for four years, followed by two years as a lab/data manager at
Stanford University in California, where she worked with Dr. Erik Sperling to set up the database for
the ‘Sedimentary Geochemistry and Paleoenvironments Project (SGP)’. She is currently back at TCD
as a research fellow. She teaches palaeontology, works at the TCD Geological Museum and on the
database for ‘Stonebuilt Ireland’, which is a project led by Dr. Patrick Wyse Jackson and Dr. Louise
Caulfield in collaboration with the Office of Public Works and Geological Survey Ireland. Una also
continues to work remotely for the SGP project.

Date and Time: Tuesday, 28 March 2023, between 19:00 pm and 20:00 via Zoom.

To Register: send an e-mail to  info@geology.ie 

A Zoom link will be sent on the day to those who have registered.