Earth and Space Science: Better Data Management Results in Better Science

Earth, planetary, heliophysics, and other natural science data are essential to our understanding of the environment and how it changes with time. This data is being collected and generated by researchers and researcher collaborations using diverse sensors, instruments, and models. Mandates for data to be openly accessible allow other scientists and researchers from all science disciplines to use it towards new research and to develop long-term environmental monitoring by combining it with other data in ways that were not originally conceived.

This is a complex and challenging environment requiring consistent and sustainable data management practices across the scientific data repository ecosystem. At AGU we have developed a program to help repositories, large and small, domain-specific to general, assess and improve their data management practices. Through our partnership with the CMMI Institute, we are using the Data Management Maturity model to help our community elevate their data management practices.

Shelley Stall is the Assistant Director for the American Geophysical Union's Data Management Assessment Program. She works with scientific data repositories to improve their data management practices with the ultimate goal of elevating how research data is managed across the globe. Better data management results in better science. Shelley's diverse experience as a program and project manager, software architect, database architect, performance and optimization analyst, data product provider, and data integration analyst provides her with a core capability in the development of practical and sustainable data management practices.