—–
What research fields are you in? (25 words)
I am a neuroscientist and cell biologist who is passionate about improving research practices and science policy for the future of science.
Still true! I no longer work at the bench, but I’m still a scientist. I now have direct experience advocating for policy at the national and state level. I have have time to focus on institutional policy issues. And, importantly, I am a more effective communicator and a confident leader because of the fellowship.
What is your research focus? (50 words)
I study the demyelinating peripheral neuropathy Charcot Marie Tooth 4B2, a disease caused by the loss of a protein with an unknown function. I am working to understand the basic biology behind this disease using genetic knock-out models, cell culture, molecular biology, virally-mediated genetic manipulations, and fluorescence and electron microscopy.
I finished my PhD, so this has changed. I now spend most of my time thinking about open data, project management, and projects that support an inclusive future for science.
Describe to us your current research team. (50 words)
My research team includes cell and molecular biologists, neuroscientists, myelin biologists, as well as fluorescence and electron microscopy specialists. My lab is currently a small group (4 people) but we collaborate within our institution and globally. My open science advocacy partners include faculty, students, librarians, and open source community members.
My team has changed now that I’m no longer in the lab. However, my experience at the bench helps me advocate for researchers at the bench because I understand what they do every day, how academic incentives impact research, and their priorities. Today, my team is my fellow-fellows, the 2015 fellows, Mozilla Science and Advocacy teams, and most importantly – the worldwide Mozilla community! When I want feedback on a project, I bring it to the community call and get comments from around the world. I :heart: #mozfamily!
Describe to us how open science advances your research. (100 words)
Through years of research in neuroscience labs, I’ve seen cultural and technical barriers stand in the way of open science and data sharing. Until recently, I thought this was how science worked. After learning about the open science movement, I began teaching myself tools to ensure my work is transparent, reproducible, and archival. Meetups in the local open source scene empowered me to learn to code. Code literacy has been transformative for my scientific practice in terms of efficiency, reproducibility, and data management. I’m not an expert, but I seek out resources and try to teach as I learn.
This fellowship has enabled me to develop my skills working with open tools and I’ve co-founded a Mozilla Study Club (BioData Club). I an a co-organizer of csv,conf,v3, I’ve taught Working Open Workshops (Montreal, miniWOW PDX, and more on the way), I’ve taught numerous intros to GitHub, and data rescue events. In summary, I’ve boosted my skills and gained a lot of valuable experiences!
Are you leading any projects related to open science? (100 words)
Open Insight PDX – Hands-on workshops and interactive discussions designed to bolster coding skills and introduce scientists to national and international leaders in the open science and open source communities. Events included Collaboration with Git and GitHub, Data and Doughnuts roundtable with Phil Bourne (NIH Data Science Director), Mark Hahnel (Figshare), Bastian Greshake (OpenSNP).
Science Hack Day PDX – 48 hour event that will facilitate collaborative projects between Portland’s scientist, open source, designer, and maker communities.
Rstats for n00bs – Workshop designed for small data scientists who are new to coding. Covers installation of R-studio, importing data, exploring data, and basic statistical tests.
So, I’ve done a lot of projects since the fellowship started in September. See my Project of Projects and fellowship resume for more on what’s been happening this year.
How do you see Mozilla advancing your work? (50 words)
Scientists need education around workflows and resources that make open science practices an easy investment. Good tools exist, but they are not typically taught during scientific training. Support from Mozilla will help me move new ideas into labs by eliminating the tool-barrier and hacking the culture to encourage open practices.
I’ve been able to invest time and energy into getting open tools in front of scientists and pushing the needle on open science at my institution. The work isn’t done. But with Mozilla resources and support, I’ve made progress at my institution. I hope this can serve as a case study for others!
What do you see as the opportunities for impact around open research at your university? Could you leverage this opportunity in a potential
project? (50 words)
There are labs on campus with potential to become open champions. They attend open science discussions and hands-on open tool workshops, but they don’t have consistent open policies and practices. I can provide support to identify and overcome barriers to openness, and create case studies for developing open champions.
The time and energy myself and my collaborators have spent getting open tools in front of these potential champions has worked in some cases and is still a work in progress in other cases. Cultivating open champions within in institution is an impactful way to push scientific culture towards openness – but like a lot of my projects, the work isn’t done yet.
What do you think needs to change most immediately in scientific research? (100 words)
Culture. Scientific culture moves slowly. To keep their jobs and maintain labs, investigators buy into the existing system and train their students to do the same. I can’t count the times I’ve been told “That’s the way science works” as justification for secrecy, biassed processes, nonsensical assessment structures, and other cultural constructs that have little do with scientific inquiry. It is more efficient, reproducible, and impactful to work openly. All scientists want to be efficient, reproducible, and impactful. We need to leverage this to instigate broad cultural change towards open science.
I stand by this answer! I haven’t fully changed scientific culture in the last six months, but I’ve made some good progress and plan to devote my career to improving scientific culture and practice.
What project in the field do you find most inspiring to further science and the web? (50 words)
I am inspired by ASAPbio’s use of education and outreach to get biologists to use existing preprint infrastructure. High profile champions were created at the ASAPbio meeting and preprints have now been posted from several historically secretive labs. This project’s strategy is pushing scientific culture towards openness and web-based resources.
I stand by this answer – ASAPbio is awesome!
Why is the the open web important to you? (25 words)
The open web is the future of science. Scientific methods and data now live online, but only the open web enables accessibility, transparency, and reproducibility.
Yep! Still true! In fact, now I fully appreciate how science depends on the web. A healthy future for science depends on a healthy internet.
—–