Executive Committee Nominations for 2026-2027

Joining the TDWG Executive Committee

Nominations are open for positions on the Executive Committee of Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) for terms spanning 2026-2027.

This is an opportunity to lead the development of biodiversity informatics and work with an enthusiastic team to improve the quality and interoperability of biodiversity data.

TDWG is an international organization that promotes the digitization, integration, and sharing of information about the world’s biodiversity. TDWG provides a forum where individuals, projects, and institutions who manage biodiversity data can come together to share expertise and promote interoperability by promulgating standards and best practices. TDWG also publishes the Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS) journal where papers on issues related to information technology and biodiversity science can be published. The TDWG Executive Committee oversees the work of TDWG. It coordinates TDWG’s Interest and Task Groups, manages the review and ratification of standards, manages the organization’s journal, and organizes the annual meeting. These responsibilities are set forth in the Constitution and detailed further in a supplementary document.

Positions on the executive are staggered two-year terms, such that no more than half of the Committee will be new each year. Towards the end of every calendar year, TDWG holds elections for terms that are expiring and need to be filled for the coming year. Officers elected this year will serve terms in the caledar years 2026 and 2027. The the schedule and procedures for nominations and the election are detailed below, followed by open positions, their responsibilities, and nominees.

Nomination procedure

To nominate someone for one of the positions above, first confirm that the nominee is willing to accept the responsibilities of the office. Then work with the nominee to send a brief statement of the nominee’s background and vision (approximately 400 words) to the TDWG Secretary. Self nominations are accepted. All nominations must be complete and received before 6 December 2025.

Election procedure

The TDWG Secretariat will post the names of nominees below with their statements background and vision. Shortly after nominations are closed, the Secretariat will distribute ballots to all institutional and individual members in good standing. In the case of institutional members, we will notify the primary and secondary contacts, but only one ballot response will be accepted. If you are uncertain about your membership status, please inquire with the TDWG Treasurer (treasurer@tdwg.org). Institutional ballots will be weighted as five individual ballots.

General responsibilities

All officers, including subcommittee chairs, have voting rights on the Executive Committee, and are expected to participate in the Committee’s conference calls, which usually last one hour twice a month. Executive Committee members are expected to find their own support to attend the annual conference.

Offices open for election

All officers elected this year will serve a term of two calendar years, 2026-2027, except the Deputy Chair, who will serve an additional two years as Chair.

The nominations received until now (1 Dec) are listed below under the respective role. The nominating period does not close until 6 December.

Deputy Chair

Serves as Deputy Chair 2026-2027, then as Chair 2028-2029

One nomination:

Elie Saliba - Beirut, Lebanon

Background

I am a Lebanese-French systematic biologist and taxonomist specializing in biodiversity informatics, with a particular focus on the integration, management, and interoperability of taxonomic and nomenclatural information. My work centers on improving how biodiversity data systems represent, link, and validate scientific names, taxa, and related entities, ultimately enabling researchers and institutions to work with cleaner, more consistent, and more actionable data.

I completed my Ph.D. at Sorbonne Université and the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, where my thesis examined how zoological nomenclature processes can be modeled and computerized. I discovered the BIS-TDWG community during my first year as a PhD student and never left. After my doctorate, I joined the national e-COL+ project as a postdoctoral researcher, working at the intersection of natural history collections and artificial intelligence to explore how machine-based approaches can support the digitization and interpretation of collection data. I also worked as a communication officer at GBIF France and participated in the ongoing alignment of GRSciColl and the French National Natural Collections infrastructure.

I am the current Co-Chair of the TDWG Partnership & Funding Subcommittee, and a member of the Latimer Core Maintenance Group. I participated in the French-Spanish Plinian Core pollinator CESP. I’m also responsible for the recent translations of Latimer Core and most of Darwin Core into French. I’ve been regularly teaching biodiversity informatics, database management, and zoological nomenclature in France and internationally, including talking about TDWG standards and their applications for several years.

Vision

I am committed to advancing a more open, FAIR, connected, and globally inclusive biodiversity informatics landscape. My priorities cover two key areas. First, I want to increase the visibility and adoption of TDWG standards by addressing language barriers and promoting biodiversity informatics in underrepresented regions—particularly the Middle East and North Africa. Second, I believe TDWG should better recognize and support the volunteers whose dedication sustains our community while also streamlining the processes for ratifying and updating standards in ways that respect everyone’s volunteer capacity.

TDWG has provided me with a warm and welcoming environment as an early-career researcher, where more experienced colleagues generously share their knowledge and insight. I want to help preserve and strengthen this culture of mentorship and collaboration, as I believe it is fundamental to TDWG’s strength and long-term success.

Technical Architecture Group, Chair

One nomination:

Ben Norton - Independent; Raleigh, NC, USA

Background

As a dedicated, mission-driven, and determined individual, leading efforts that turn ideas into realities through technology has been a central theme of my career since the very beginning. The Technical Architecture Group chair position is at the apex of this endeavor. The TAG is an engine of progress, ingenuity, and support that impacts activities across the TDWG organization. The opportunities to extend this pivotal role are immense.

Over the past 15 years, I have chartered an Interdisciplinary and multi-functional career path at the intersection of science and technology. Today, this pathway has materialized into an extensive technical skill set with domain expertise in several scientific fields in both an academic and professional capacity. I’ve built dozens of data-driven, web-based technologies across numerous scientific disciplines, including online search portals, data publishing platforms, and small and large-scale collections management systems.

In 2020, I became an active member of TDWG. Three years later, I’m the current deputy chair of the Technical Architecture Group, co-convener of the Mineralogy Extension Task Group, review manager of Latimer Core, and contributor to Minimum Information about a Digital Specimen (MIDS) and Camtrap DP. I’ve had the honor of publishing best practices guides, presenting and hosting symposiums at annual conferences, and providing technical guidance to efforts across the organization. In collaboration with the current TAG chair, I’m developing tools to streamline the publication of standards documentation in tandem with the existing RDF TDWG workflow. This effort has immense potential to improve the organization’s operations for years.

Vision

I envision a more significant and strategic support role for TAG with a prioritization of the following ongoing efforts:

1. Assure that the work initiated and led by the current chair continues and, where possible, see the activity through to completion.
2. Expand the TDWG Technical Recommendations, beginning with two best practice guides that address the use of complex values and SKOS mappings in data standards.
3. Deploy an automated tool for generating web-based standards documentation that operates in tandem with the current RDF workflow.
4. Develop a strategy to provide targeted support to individual Task and Interest Groups within the current confines of TAG member obligations.
5. Complete the reorganization of current and past data standards under the stewardship of TDWG.
6. Continue to broaden and diversify TDWG membership, focusing on underrepresented populations and gaps in domain expertise.

Infrastructure, Chair

One nomination:

Tim Robertson - Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat, Copenhagen, Denmark

Background

I currently act as the chair for the Subcommittee for Infrastructure and – along with the members of the group – wrote the current mission and responsibilities of the group which I believe are still relevant.

During my time leading this group we have reworked the TDWG website and assisted TDWG in reorganizing its activities to make maximum use of GitHub.

I am Deputy Director and Head of Informatics at the GBIF Secretariat, and we accommodate TDWG needs within the role of our team which includes the operation and updating of mailing lists, websites etc.

A (deliberately modest) vision

The TDWG community require a stable and simple infrastructure that is intuitive to use. The recent adoption of GitHub for the working groups and website content, along with the mailing lists, tools for conference registration and our journal partnership are – in my opinion – the correct level of infrastructure for TDWG to operate effectively. I see the current role of the committee to continue ensuring the existing processes operate smoothly and be ready to explore emerging needs, but do not see it necessary to make significant changes at this point.

Fundraising and Partnerships, Chair

One nomination:

Patricia Mergen - Botanical Garden, Meise, Belgium

Background

I have been involved with TDWG since 2002 and familiar with biodiversity data since working on my PHD, notably via Fishbase. I would be honored to continue my role as Chair of the Partnership and Fundraising committee. I have been appointed as temporary Head of Delegation representing Belgium in GBIF in 2025, and part of the TDWG delegation to GBIF. In GBIF, I am part of the GBIF trainers and mentors network, and the translator group for French, where training on TDWG standards is a prominent part. I have been involved in many TDWG and GBIF related activities encouraging data provision to GBIF and contribution to standards development, including updates of my own institutions, and also in the networks where I represent them, or for Belgium internationally, such as the Research Infrastructure DiSSCo (Distributed System of Scientific collection), the CETAF (Consortium of European Taxonomy Facilities), BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library) and EOSC (European Open Science Cloud). I also have extensive experience participating in externally funded research projects (e.g., EU Cooperation and Development, and JRS Biodiversity Foundation). and have participated in several projects where TDWG and GBIF are partners or contributors, such as BICIKL, SYNTHESYS, and DiSSCo-related projects. Finally, I have worked with African partners in GBIF BID projects where TDWG standards are used.

Vision

Growing from this international experience, my vision for TDWG is to sign more cooperation agreements with important TDWG stakeholders following this year’s MoU with the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). With my experience in fundraising and opportunity seeking, I will seek funding for TDWG in projects to support TDWG standards development and usage. Important other funding needs are mobility grants for participation in our events and support the organization of the conferences. To have good geographic coverage at our conferences, collaboration with the TDWG’s regional representatives is essential.

Time and Place, Chair

One nomination:

Kristen “Kit” Lewers - University of Colorado Boulder and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA

Background

My path into biodiversity informatics began during my undergraduate research in Yellowstone National Park, where I first saw how ecological understanding depends not only on fieldwork but also on the coordinated efforts of many people and institutions. This realization shaped my career around the intersection of biodiversity science, technology, and collaborative infrastructure.

I am now a PhD candidate in Information Science and Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder and a NASA FINESST fellow working mainly with NASA GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center) and collaborating with NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab) for work on Advancing Earth Science and Biodiversity Informatics through Event-Driven, Modular Workflows. My scholarship is deeply sociotechnical: I study how communities manage information overload, how standards and infrastructures evolve, and how organizations cooperate while maintaining autonomy. My work blends HCI (human–computer interaction), governance, software engineering, and image spectroscopy to understand how data systems and the people behind them work together across institutions and scales.

In parallel, I serve as a NEON Airborne Observation Platform ambassador, work in the commercial space industry, and manage a drone program with the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, roles that reinforce my commitment to building bridges between technical systems and the collaborative networks that sustain them. Across all of my work, I focus on strengthening the human and institutional relationships that make data-driven science possible.

Vision

Over the past two years as Time and Place Committee Chair, my focus has been on relationship-building, strategic planning, and ensuring that TDWG meetings reflect our values of accessibility, global representation, and community cohesion. Working closely with our partners in Norway to prepare for TDWG 2026, and with colleagues across GBIF, GEO BON, and OBIS during the Living Data 2025 joint conference development, I’ve seen firsthand how thoughtful collaboration and early, trusted partnerships can elevate TDWG’s impact and visibility.

My vision for the next term is to build on these foundations and expand TDWG’s presence in a way that better serves our global community. I aim to:

1. Strengthen international partnerships for future conferences.
   TDWG thrives when we co-create with host institutions. I am committed to cultivating strong relationships with governments, research organizations, biodiversity networks, and any other necessary parties to support long-term planning and impactful conference programming.
2. Explore a regional “hub-and-spoke” meeting model.
   As TDWG continues to grow, we have an opportunity to experiment with distributed regional meetings that complement the annual global conference. This model can increase accessibility, support local capacity building, and bring TDWG’s standards conversations closer to underrepresented communities.
3. Continue enhancing accessibility, equity, and sustainability in conference planning.
   Through data-driven site selection, hybrid participation models, and strong local partnerships, we can ensure that TDWG events remain welcoming, feasible, and globally inclusive.
4. Further integrate TDWG’s culture into international research communities.
   One of the most rewarding aspects of Time & Place work has been representing TDWG externally and bringing our collaborative ethos into new spaces. I will continue championing TDWG as a vibrant, trusted community within the global biodiversity informatics landscape.

TDWG meetings are more than events, they are pillars of our community. My goal is to continue building conference environments where connection, collaboration, and shared purpose can thrive for years to come.

Regional Representatives

Regional Representative for Africa

One nomination:

Brice Djiofack - Independent, Brussels, Belgium

Background

I was born and raised in Cameroon, where I obtained an MSc in Plant Ecology from the University of Dschang in 2014. I then pursued a second MSc in Bioscience Engineering at the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium), where my research focused on the growth performance of Pericopsis elata, an iconic timber species of Central and West Africa, in a historical research experiment in Yangambi (DR Congo). After graduating in 2018, I worked for over three years as a junior expert in local development, providing technical support to partners and community-based organizations, conducting forest research, and delivering capacity-building services in Yangambi/Kisangani (DR Congo) as part of the FORETS project. In July 2021, I began a PhD at Ghent University within the PilotMAB project, coordinated by the Service of wood biology of the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA). (PhD completed in May 2025.) My research focuses on defining and implementing forest management and restoration strategies that enable forests to absorb atmospheric CO 2 at levels higher than those observed in natural forests in central Africa.

Vision

My vision for the next term is to deepen my understanding of TDWG and to explore how these resources can benefit the African community. Thus, I envision identifying opportunities in which the TDWG’s tools and knowledge can strengthen local bioversity initiatives, support data sharing among institutions, and enhance capacity building, thereby contributing to more inclusive and impactful conservation efforts across the continent.

Regional Representative for Oceania

One nomination:

Corinna Paeper - National Research Collections Australia, National Collections & Marine Infrastructure, CSIRO, Canberra, Australia

Background

With a PhD in Plant Science from the Australian National University and over 15 years of experience across government, higher education, and research sectors, I’ve developed expertise in biodiversity informatics and data management, driving digital transformation initiatives that make biodiversity data more accessible and impactful. My foundation in molecular biology provided deep understanding of biological system complexities and the critical importance of robust data management in scientific research.

As Group Leader for Digital, Data & Informatics at CSIRO’s National Research Collections Australia, I provide strategic oversight for Australia’s most comprehensive specimen-based biodiversity record - over 15 million specimens. Leading digital strategy, I advance specimen data management, operationalise collection digitisation, and lead development of AI/ML methods for biological information integration. This includes diagnostic tools, automated trait extraction from specimen images, and large-scale analyses integrating multiple data layers.

My track record includes managing the migration of over 2 million records from four national collections whilst building comprehensive support frameworks that empowered collection managers across institutions. In my previous role at the Atlas of Living Australia, I developed impact reporting frameworks and data integration approaches that enhanced how researchers and policy-makers access and utilise biodiversity information.

Through representing CSIRO at forums including the Australian Faunal Collections Informatics Group, I’ve developed strong collaborative networks across Australia’s biodiversity informatics community and gained comprehensive understanding of both technical challenges and strategic opportunities in standards development.

Vision

As Oceania Representative, I will leverage my strategic leadership experience to elevate our region’s collective influence in global biodiversity standards development whilst fostering inclusive participation across our diverse institutional landscape. Oceania encompasses remarkable biodiversity across Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, with institutions operating at different scales and with varying resources - all deserving representation in international biodiversity informatics discussions.

My focus centres on bridging cutting-edge technologies with practical implementation needs through collaborative approaches. My experience leading large-scale digital transformations positions me to advocate for standards that support both advanced applications and the diverse needs of institutions across our region, ensuring TDWG standards evolve to accommodate emerging technologies whilst remaining accessible across different contexts and capabilities.

I’m committed to building stronger collaborative networks, facilitating knowledge exchange, and ensuring Oceania’s innovations and unique perspectives contribute strategically and meaningfully to global biodiversity informatics advancement.