OUR TEAM

Our multidisciplinary ESS-DIVE team includes computer/data scientists, earth scientists, and digital librarians.

LEADERSHIP

	Charuleka Varadharajan, cvaradharajan@lbl.gov *ESS-DIVE PI, Staff Scientist* Charu is a computational Earth scientist at LBNL’s Earth and Environmental sciences area, with expertise in with expertise in machine learning, data science and data management for water resources and other environmental applications. As the lead PI for ESS-DIVE, she is responsible for overall project management and oversight and chief product owner for ESS-DIVE feature development. She is also the PI of a DOE ESS Early Career project (iNAIADS), and a research focus area/data management lead of the DOE ESS-funded Watershed Function SFA, which are both focused on investigating the impacts of climate disturbances on watersheds. She leads LBNL’s Earth AI and data program, is a PI at the International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and is a research affiliate with the Berkeley Institute of Data Sciences.
	Shreyas Cholia, scholia@lbl.gov ESS-DIVE PI Shreyas is Group Leader for Integrated Data Systems Group in LBNL’s Computational Sciences Area, focused on the engineering and integration aspects of computational and data analysis systems. He is particularly interested in the interactive aspects of scientific computing at scale. As a co-PI for ESS-DIVE, he is responsible for overall project management and oversight, and is the chief technology lead for the software infrastructure. He has extensive experience leading teams and building data systems for scientific projects, such as ESS-DIVE, The National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC), Wildland Fire Science Initiative (WFSI) and the Materials Project. He also worked for over a decade at the NERSC supercomputing center, where he led the science gateway and grid computing efforts.
	Val Hendrix, vchendrix@lbl.gov *Technical Lead, Chief Engineer* Valerie is the chief engineer and technical lead overseeing the management of the ESS-DIVE infrastructure and software services. As the engineering lead, she is responsible for all technical aspects of the ESS-DIVE project. She leads the team of engineers and oversees all phases of maintenance, from planning to execution, and is responsible for the implementation of new features and software lifecycle best practices to enhance operational capabilities. Valerie has a Master’s in Computer Science and 23+ years software engineering experience. She has demonstrated experience with DevOps, scientific workflows, satellite data processing and has been a technical lead for several earth and environmental sciences projects with an emphasis on collecting, storing and synthesizing environmental datasets (BASIN-3D, NGEE-Tropics, Wildland Fire Science Initiative).
	Joan Damerow, joandamerow@lbl.gov *Community Engagement Lead, Research Scientist* Joan is an environmental scientist with a diverse background in environmental monitoring and remediation, freshwater ecology, and biodiversity informatics. As the Community engagement lead Joan leads engagement activities for ESS-DIVE, including webinars, our community data workshop, and is active in relevant conferences and data working groups (e.g. ESIP, RDA, AGU). She also leads activities related to samples data management and linking related data across BER data repositories. Joan is interested in interdisciplinary data management and tracking, and works with our community of data contributors to identify, develop, and implement practical data standards in ESS-DIVE that support FAIR principles.
	Karen Whitenack, kwhitenack@lbl.gov *Project Administrator* Karen serves as the key administrative contact for the ESS-DIVE project. Karen has extensive experience providing high-level project management support to collaborative teams including assistance with budgets, reporting, coordinating team meetings, program reviews and communication. Ms. Whitenack holds a BA in Social Ecology from UC Irvine.
	Deb Agarwal, daagarwal@lbl.gov *Senior Advisor* Prior to her retirement, Deb was the lead PI for ESS-DIVE, and was responsible for management and oversight of the project. Deb was a Senior Computer Science researcher and has substantial expertise in leading data activities for large-scale ESS projects (e.g., AmeriFlux, Watershed Function SFA, and NGEE Tropics). She headed the Data Science and Technology Department at Berkeley Lab, and was a member of the ESS Cyberinfrastructure Executive Committee. Deb now serves as a Senior Advisor to ESS-DIVE.

TEAM

	Madison Burrus, mburrus@lbl.gov *Computer Systems Engineer* Madison is a computer systems engineer at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. She supports ESS-DIVE metadata publication, data pipeline workflows, and feature development. As the lead support staff, she handles community inquiries and troubleshooting. Additionally, she leads data management and publication for the Watershed Function SFA. Madison holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from Stony Brook University.
	Danielle Christianson, DSChristianson@lbl.gov Computer Science Engineer Danielle works with primarily earth science researchers to co-create data management tools and workflows to support their research. Her role in the Scientific Data Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory combines UX research, full stack design and development, and operations. Her background is diverse: mechanical engineering, ecology, new media, data science.
	Hesham Elbashandy, helbashandy@lbl.gov Computer Systems Engineer Hesham is a seasoned Computer Systems Engineer with expertise in software web services and infrastructure. Since obtaining his B.Sc. in Computer Engineering in 2017, he has played a pivotal role at ESS-DIVE, beginning his contributions in late 2018. Hesham supports the existing ESS-DIVE systems and infrastructure and leads the development and modernization of the ESS-DIVE UI. This role showcases his proficiency in robust web service development, DevOps, and the maintenance of scientific data portals. Additionally, he contributes to data auditing and resilience within the ESS-DIVE data repository. Recently, Hesham took on the role of software development lead for the Watershed Function SFA and, since mid-2024, has been involved with the HPC resource allocation system for UC Research IT, expanding his contributions to critical research infrastructure.
	Matthew Henderson, mhenderson@lbl.gov Computer Systems Engineer Matt is an experienced Computer Systems Engineer who builds solutions for scientific research teams, not limited to but including front-end, back-end, search, HPC, and Jupyter. He is joining the ESS-DIVE team in 2024 to lead the DevOps effort.
	Emily Nagamoto, EmilyNagamoto@lbl.gov Research Associate Emily is a research associate at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. As a member of ESS-DIVE’s Community Engagement Team, Emily assists with adding data contributors, reviewing dataset publications, and supporting users in their utilization of ESS-DIVE data. She is also a member of the iNAIADS Team, under Dr. Charuleka Varadharajan. Emily graduated with a dual major in Earth & Climate Science and Computer Science from Duke University, and works part-time at the Heat Policy Innovation Hub.
	Fianna O’Brien, flobrien@lbl.gov Computer Systems Engineer Fianna is a computer systems engineer focusing on data publication and data lifecycle workflows for ESS-DIVE. She has experience managing publication data and creating data driven outreach tools for large-scale ESS projects. She holds a B.A. in Computational Linguistics from Hampshire College.
	Dylan O’Ryan, dporyan@lbl.gov *Environmental Data Research Associate* Dylan is a research associate at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. As a member of ESS-DIVE’s Community Engagement Team, Dylan leads the dataset publication review process and facilitates the implementation of data reporting formats. He is also a member of the Watershed Function SFA Data Management Team. Dylan holds a B.S. in Environmental Studies from Sacramento State and is currently a M.S. student in the Environmental Geosicences program at CSU East Bay.
	Sarah Poon, sspoon@lbl.gov *Computer Systems Engineer* Sarah Poon is a Computer Systems Engineer at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Her work primarily focuses on UX design / research and frontend development. She’s designed and developed UIs for science projects spanning a wide range of domains, including astrophysics, climate science, and systems biology, and user facilities, such as the Advanced Light Source (ALS) and the NERSC supercomputing facility.
	Shalki Shrivastava, sshrivastava@lbl.gov *Computer Systems Engineer* Shalki is an Integrated Data Systems Software Engineer working on ESS-DIVE to develop tools and services to support data management and development of new features for the platform. She has experience developing data pipelines and semantic tools enabling knowledge discovery. She holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from NC State University
	Catherine Wong, catwong@lbl.gov Computer Science Student Assistant Catherine is a computer science student assistant supporting the ESS-DIVE team on developing existing and experimental tools, services, and features for data management. She has experience in translating concepts into practical software solutions, generating innovative ideas, and embracing new challenges with a commitment to implementing best practices. She is currently a student at University of California, Berkeley with a double major in Data Science and Applied Math in Computer Science.

PARTNERS @NCEAS

The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at UC Santa Barbara is partnering on implementation of the data preservation component, including providing replication to NCEAS and other DataONE nodes. NCEAS is a DataONE member and a recognized expert in ecological data, digital libraries, and standards for data format.

PARTNERS @NERSC

The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) will be the primary data center for ESS-DIVE.

PARTNERS @OSTI

The DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) is partnering on providing DOIs and metadata enhancement for data packages.

ARCHIVE PARTNERSHIP BOARD

The ESS-DIVE Archive Partnership board is a representative body of ESS-DIVE’s main stakeholders. Its members consist of the principal investigators of major ESS projects/programs, and some ESS-funded university projects. The board provides requirements and feedback to inform the development of ESS-DIVE features and provide direction to its community engagement activities.