Solving complex scientific problems often requires teams of researchers from different disciplines or even different institutions. And increasingly, information professionals are a part of those teams.
Four faculty members from UT’s College of Communication and Information have received a $438,991 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to spend two years educating six master’s students in the area of scientific data curation, with a special emphasis on organizational communication skills that support team science.
Team members include Associate Professor Suzie Allard, principal investigator, and Chancellor’s Professor Carol Tenopir and Assistant Professor Kimberly Douglass, all from the School of Information Sciences; and Associate Professor Ken Levine from the School of Communication Studies. They will also be working with faculty from the University of New Mexico Libraries.
The program will begin in June and run through May 2015, and the team is in the process of recruiting interested students now. To learn more contact Allard at sallard@utk.edu.
The students will be taking courses at UT and participating in hands-on research to learn how to work with interdisciplinary teams. They will be mentored by faculty members who have served on scientific research teams. The students also will travel to New Mexico in May 2015 to visit the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of New Mexico Libraries. They also will visit the offices of DataONE (Data Observation Network for Earth), a project that enables new science and knowledge creation through universal access to data about life on earth and the environment that sustains it.
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CONTACT:
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)