BRAHMS Advisory Group
Based at Oxford
Denis Filer, Plant Sciences, University of Oxford - UK (denis.filer @ plants.ox.ac.uk).
Denis Filer is the coordinator of the BRAHMS project and related systems development. Special interests include working with primary botanical data in herbaria, diversity analysis and streamlining checklist, flora and monograph production.
Stephen Harris, Plant Sciences, University of Oxford - UK (stephen.harris @ plants.ox.ac.uk).
Stephen Harris, Curator of the Oxford University Herbaria, is responsible for the development of the central database covering the FHO and OXF herbaria. This includes the coordination of general data entry, managing loans and exchanges and the implementation of the type specimen image digitisation project. Particular problems are faced by the complex historical arrangement of the collections, the extensive pre-Linnaean specimen labelling and large archives of manuscript material associated with the collections.
William Hawthorne, Plant Sciences, University of Oxford - UK (william.hawthorne @ plants.ox.ac.uk).
William Hawthorne is a tropical botanist/ecologist, using BRAHMS in various projects mostly in Africa, the Caribbean and South America, in forest and savanna. His main BRAHMS-related interests include field guides, hotspot assessment and forest regeneration data. The need to display results of botanical survey and forest inventory data for Ghana in the 1980s led to his production of embryonic sample plot data and species mapping software (FROGGIE) which led (1993-1996) to work with Denis Filer firstly on the BRAHMS project to develop mapping functions, and then more sporadically (1996-2002) on related TREMA software, designed to help with management of plot data. He has subsequently been collaborating with Denis and others to develop links between BRAHMS and the Virtual Field Herbarium. We are therefore currently focused on the sample plot data functions, ecological and spatial data and the Distribution Summary Table functions; and image data management in BRAHMS.
Colin Hughes, Plant Sciences, University of Oxford - UK (colin.hughes @ plants.ox.ac.uk).
Colin Hughes has been working with BRAHMS since 1989 and has made contributions to most aspects of its functionality. He has used BRAHMS to assist with the preparation of his Leucaena monograph for Systematic Botany Monographs and is currently using the system to assist with the revision of Lupinus. The Leucaena database is now available online.
Andrew Liddell, Plant Sciences, University of Oxford - UK (andrew.liddell @ plants.ox.ac.uk).
Andrew Liddell has been working on the development of internet components of BRAHMS, BRAHMS online and related Web Services. The BRAHMS online web site was created to distribute BRAHMS software and to provide online search facilities for groups of BRAHMS databases. The website has recently updated to use version 3.5 of the Microsoft .Net framework.
Based elsewhere
Harvey Ballard, Professor, Plant Systematics & Evolution, Ohio University.
(ballardh@ohio.edu)
Harvey Ballard has created customized databases using the BRAHMS system for diverse purposes. One database is for Violaceae of the world, presently being developed for internet access and for expansion to incorporate data and images from violet specialists who are members of the Species Plantarum Programmes Violaceae Working Group. A second database for Ohio vascular plants has been created, with the herbarium of Ohio University and that of Muskingum College - both actively databasing their collections. Collaborative links have been established to install replicate BRAHMS Ohio Flora databases and provide training to other herbaria around the state, in preparation for implementing a statewide database network and digital fora for Ohio.
Aljos Farjon, Herbarium RBG Kew - UK (A.Farjon@rbgkew.org.uk).
Aljos Farjon has been a daily user of BRAHMS since 1993 when he started work on the Flora Neotropica account for Latin American Pinus at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford. Since that work was published in 1997 he has worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on various large and small projects, e.g. A World Checklist & Bibliography of Conifers (1998, 2001), a Monograph of Cupressaceae and Sciadopitys (2005) and A Handbook of the World's Conifers (current project), all using data compiled in BRAHMS. He has contributed substantially to the development of the taxonomic and nomenclatural features of BRAHMS and is a member of the BRAHMS Advisory Broup. The Pinus and Cupressaceae databases are now available online.
Jeanine Velez Gavilan, MAPR Herbarium, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez Campus,
Puerto Rico (jvelezg@uprm.edu).
Jeanine Velez Gavilan has been working with BRAHMS since 1997. She has coordinated the development of the MAPR Herbarium database which already includes the data for all MAPR vascular plants. She is also responsible for the training of researchers and students working with the database as well as stimulating database development in other Puerto Rico and Latin American herbaria. Together with other MAPR researchers, she aims to develop a common database for the Puerto Rican Flora. She has a special interest to compare present and past distribution of species in the threatened habitats of Puerto Rico.
Saw Leng Guan, Director, Tropical Forest Biodiversity Centre, FRIM, Malaysia
(sawlg@frim.gov.my).
Saw Leng Guan has been working with BRAHMS since 1994 and has coordinated the development of the main Kepong Herbarium database as well as promoting data exchange regionally. He has a special interest in conservation and analysis of the Flora in South East Asia, with a special interest in the Palms. He is also responsible for developing a new Botanic Garden in Kepong and as such, has a special interest in linking data from the herbarium with those of the Botanic Garden.
Mike Hopkins, PPBio Amazonia, National Amazonian Research Institute, Manaus
- Brazil (mikehopkins44@hotmail.com).
Mike Hopkins is an ecologist turned botanist working on the plant biodiversity of the Brazilian Amazon. His work in Brazil has centred on dissemination of knowledge about Amazonian plants notably through the Flora da Reserva Ducke and Dendrogene projects, respectively at INPA (1993-1999) and Embrapa Amazonia Oriental (IAN) (2000-2005). After a spell as a visiting lecturer at the Federal Rural Amazon University, he is now a member of the Brazilian Government's Amazon Biodiversity Project (PPBio) based at INPA in Manaus and is responsible for the quality and integration of Amazonian plant data sets and their online dissemination. He gives frequent training courses in BRAHMS in Latin America on demand.
Regina Martins da Silva, Curator, Herbário IAN Embrapa Amazônia
Oriental - Brazil (regina@cpatu.embrapa.br).
Regina Martins da Silva has been coordinating the development of the BRAHMS database at one of the three largest herbaria in Amazonian Brazil (Herbário IAN, Belém) - including the incorporation of the Xylarium collections. She has promoted and strengthened relations between this herbarium and also the Museu Goeldi (MG) and Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia INPA in Belém and Manaus respectively.
Tim Pearce, Seed Conservation Department, RBG Kew - UK (T.Pearce@rbgkew.org.uk).
Tim Pearce started work with BRAHMS in 1995 at the EA Herbarium, Nairobi, Kenya. He has run several BRAHMS training courses in East Africa and has developed a database for the genus Kalanchoe. His new appointment as International Coordinator for Eastern Africa within Kew's Millenium Seed Bank Project also means he is advising on the development of the BRAHMS Seedbank module.
Li-Song Wang, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, National
Herbarium of China, Beijing - China (lswang@ibcas.ac.cn).
Li-Song Wang's BRAHMS activities include the construction of a database for Chinese Apiaceae together with various other Angiosperm databases. Future work will involve large-scale analysis of biogeographic patterns of the East Asia flora based on specimen datasets. He has contributed to the development of BRAHMS operating in international environments including applications incorporating East Asian language characters.
Jan Wieringa, Biosystematics
Group, Wageningen University - Netherlands (Jan.Wieringa@wur.nl).
Jan Wieringa has been working with BRAHMS since 1999. During his PhD he developed a database for Aphanocalyx, Bikinia and Tetraberlinia. He has also been responsible for coordinating the development of BRAHMS for the ECOSYN research project, a study of plant biodiversity in West Africa. At present, he is scientific curator of the Wageningen Herbarium, and is involved in expanding their central database and using it for biodiversity assessment.
Luc Willemse, National Herbarium of the Netherlands, Leiden - Netherlands
(willemse@hmpost.leidenuniv.nl).
Luc Willemse coordinates the development of the main databases of for the National Herbarium of the Netherlands which includes Leiden, Utrecht and Wageningen. He has been responsible for the large scale BRAHMS data entry program at Leiden, linking this with parallel database activities at U and WAG. He has also been responsible for the Netherlands Type digitisation programme, this including specimen image scanning, and in setting up the loans management modules of BRAHMS at Leiden. His current activities also include the coordination of the South East Asian Botanical Collection Network.