Institutional Partners
Cornerstone Institutions
This project brings together several of the world’s leading natural history institutions, botanical gardens, and libraries, including:
Biodiversity Heritage Library
(http://biodiversitylibrary.org/)
The Field Museum of Natural History
(http://www.fieldmuseum.org/)
Harvard University
(http://www.mcz.harvard.edu/)
Marine Biological Laboratory
(http://www.mbl.edu/)
Missouri Botanical Garden
(http://www.mobot.org/)
Smithsonian Institution
(http://www.si.edu/)
Other institutions from across the United States and around the world have been invited as collaborators, and links have already been established with many relevant efforts already underway.
Component Groups
EOL uses the phrase “component groups” to refer to the five subprojects that together make up the Encyclopedia of Life. These are the Species Pages Group, the Biodiversity Informatics Group, the Scanning and Digitization Group, the Learning and Eudcation Group, and the Biodiversity Synthesis Group.
The Species Pages Group works with the scientific community and other contributors to bring together the content needed for the species pages and to authenticate it. The information on the species pages is derived from a large number of different data providers around the globe. The group recruits diverse data providers and works with the scientific community to engage experts who act as “curators” to ensure information on the species pages is correct and current. In addition, the group is implementing a robust intellectual property regime that ensures open access to Encyclopedia materials. Finally, the team is working to develop specialized portals for different audiences.
The Biodiversity Informatics Group is creating the software to establish a single portal to reach information on all 1.8 million known species scattered in diverse websites all over the world. The infrastructure is seamlessly aggregating data from thousands of sites into species pages in the Encyclopedia using novel informatics tools to capture, organize, and reshape knowledge about biodiversity. The group collaborates with data providers, and then the information is indexed and recombined for expert and non-expert users alike using aggregation technology to bring together different data elements from remote sites. In early 2009, an initial version of LifeDesk was released. LifeDesk is a system to allow communities to create new content that will flow into the Encyclopedia of Life.
The Scanning and Digitization Group is led by the Biodiversity Heritage Library, a consortium of 10 natural history and botanical libraries, who are digitizing the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections and making it available as part of an open biodiversity commons. This digitized literature is of value to a wide range of scientists as well as many others. For example, individuals in developing countries and citizen scientists who lack affiliation with major research institutions will now be able to search, read, download, and print literature that was previously unavailable to them. Artists can use the detailed illustrations in many taxonomic works as motifs or design concepts in their work, whether on canvas, paper, or digitally. Educators guiding students in how to do biological research will have a wealth of examples to incorporate into lesson plans and assignments. The BHL Portal, which is linked to the EOL species pages, is available at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ .
The overall goals of the Learning and Education Group are to insure widespread awareness of the EOL and to explore and promote new and exciting uses of this extraordinary resource in diverse settings globally. To achieve this goal, the Learning and Education Group strives to make EOL relevant, usable and interesting to a broad range of international audiences. In addition to providing a useful resource about biodiversity for educators, citizen scientists, and others, in the future Education and Outreach will encourage participation from interested parties by providing them tools to organize and serve their own observations, media, and data about the species they study.
The Biodiversity Synthesis Group aims to find new ways in which scientists, conservationists, academics, and educators can take advantage of the rich information being provided by the EOL. It supports the growth and use of the EOL by facilitating cross-disciplinary involvement of the scientific and academic community and by contributing to educational and conservation uses of the EOL. There are many pressing questions yet to be answered in all fields of biology. Human population growth, global climate change, and other environmental crises heighten the urgency with which we must discover, understand, and preserve biodiversity. To help answer these questions, the group supports meetings to explore integrative topics in biodiversity, such as taxonomy, biogeography, phylogenetics, and bioinformatics.
EOL Steering Committee
The Steering Committee consists of senior figures from the cornerstone institutions and liaisons from EOL’s financial sponsors. It provides hands-on guidance and serves as major forum for coordination of the various facets of the project. The Board is accountable for EOL’s success and meeting performance metrics
James Hanken, Director (Chairman)
Museum of Comparative Zoology
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Jesse H. Ausubel, Director
Program for the Human Environment
The Rockefeller University
New York, NY
Gary G. Borisy, Director & Chief Executive Officer
Marine Biological Laboratory
Woods Hole, MA
Graham Higley, Head of Library and Information Services
Natural History Museum
London, England
[Biodiversity Heritage Library, Chairman]
Arthur Sussman, Vice President
John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Chicago, IL
John W. McCarter, Jr., President & Chief Executive Officer
The Field Museum of Natural History
Chicago, IL
Peter H. Raven, President
Missouri Botanical Garden
St. Louis, MO
Cristián Samper, Director
National Museum of Natural History
Washington, DC
James L. Edwards, Executive Director
Encyclopedia of Life
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC
Institutional Council
The Institutional Council engages the wider international and scientific communities by providing representation for numerous institutions and programs that are crucial partners committed to implementing the EOL. The Council works to bring a wider perspective for and involvement in the EOL, to identify individuals and programs that should be involved in the project, and to engage additional funding and other resources.
John W. McCarter,Jr. (Chair)
The Field Museum of Natural History
American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS)
Represented by: Richard O'Grady (Executive Director); Paula Mabee (Professor, Department of Biology, University of South Dakota)
American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)
Represented by: Michael J. Novacek (Senior VP and Provost of Science)
ARKive
Represented by: Richard Edwards (Director)
Atlas of Living Australia (ALA)
Represented by: Joanne Daly (Group Executive, CSIRO)
Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)
Represented by: Sara Oldfield (Secretary General)
Catalogue of Life Partnership
Represented by: Frank Bisby (Director, Species 2000)
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Represented by: Keping Ma (Director, Institute of Botany)
Comision Nacional de Biodiversidad (CONABIO-Mexico)
Represented by: Ana Luisa Guzman (Executive Secretary)
Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF)
Represented by: Stefan Claesson (Vice Chair)
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Represented by: John Fitzpatrick (Director)
FishBase
Represented by: Rainer Froese (Coordinator)
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
Represented by: Joanne Daly (Chair of the Governing Board)
Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander Von Humboldt
Represented by: Eduardo Zea (Coordinator, Biodiversity Information System of Colombia)
Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio-Costa Rica)
Represented by: Rodrigo Gamez Lobo (President)
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris)
Represented by: Simon Tillier (Professor, EDIT)
Natural History Museum (London)
Represented by: Richard Lane (Director of Science)
Naturalis Museum
Represented by: Kees Hendriks (Head of Information Services & Education)
NatureServe
Represented by: Leslie Honey (Vice President of Conservation Services)
The New York Botanical Garden
Represented by: Barbara Thiers (Director, William and Lynda Steere Herbarium)
Ocean Biogeographic Information System
Represented by: Edward Vanden Berghe (Executive Director)
Royal Botanical Gardens Kew
Represented by: Eimear Nic Lughadha (Head of Science Policy and Co-ordination)
Sapling Foundation (TED)
Represented by: Chris Anderson (Curator)
South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)
Represented by: Gideon Smith (Chief Director, Biosystematics Research and Biodiversity Collections)
UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre
Represented by: Jon Hutton (Director)
Wikimedia Foundation
Represented by: Erik Moeller (Deputy Director)
World Conservation Union (IUCN)
Represented by : Simon Stuart (Chair, Species Survival Commission)
Distinguished Advisory Board
The Distinguished Advisory Board is made up of accomplished individuals from within and outside the biodiversity community around the world. The Board helps develop and advocate for the EOL vision, and provides high-level, expert guidance.
E.O. Wilson (Honorary Chair)
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Gary Borisy (Chair)
Marine Biological Laboratory
Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA
Rita Colwell
Canon US Life Sciences
College Park, Maryland, USA
Sylvia Earle
National Geographic
Oakland, California, USA
Madhav Gadgil
Agharkar Research Institute
Pune, India
Charles Godfray
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom
Calestous Juma
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Lawrence Lessig
Stanford University Law School
Stanford, California, USA
Lord Robert May
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom
José Sarukhán
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Mexico City, Mexico
Larry Smarr
University of California at San Diego
La Jolla, California, USA
Klaus Toepfer
Tongji University
Shanghai, China
Marvalee Wake
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, California, USA
