Dr Lesley Wyborn receives Grahame Sands Memorial Award

ARDC team member Dr Lesley Wyborn won the prestigious Grahame Sands Memorial Award from the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists.
GSM Award NEWS TILE

The ARDC congratulates our staff member Dr Lesley Wyborn for winning the Grahame Sands Memorial Award from the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists at their annual conference in September 2021.

Lesley has been advancing Earth Science Information research for close to 5 decades. Along with working at the ARDC, Lesley is an Honorary Professor at the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) and the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University.

Dr Adrian Burton, Director of Data Policy and Services at ARDC said: “Lesley has shown international leadership in digital infrastructure for earth science research. Her list of collaborative activities is impressive: the American Geophysical Union, the European Geophysical Union, the Earth Science Information Partners, the Committee for Data in Science of the International Science Council, and the International Geo Sample Number (IGSN), to name just a few.”

In Geoinformatics, Lesley’s main interests are developing international standards that support the integration of Earth Science datasets into transdisciplinary research projects and in developing seamless high-performance data sets (HPD) that can be used in high performance computing (HPC) and cloud environments.

She is currently Chair of the Australian Academy of Science Data in Science Committee and is on the American Geophysical Union Data Management Board. She was awarded the Australian Government Public Service Medal in 2014 for her work in geoscience and in geoinformatics, and the Geological Society of America Career Achievement Award in Geoinformatics in 2015.

In 2019, Lesley was the recipient of the Martha Maiden Award, an accolade by the ESIP Federation that recognises outstanding service to the Earth science information community and honours individuals who have demonstrated leadership, dedication, and a collaborative spirit in advancing the field of Earth science information. Lesley was the first recipient of this award from outside the United States.

Her scientific career in Mineral Systems and Geochemistry has seen her make major contributions. In informatics she has contributed to several projects including (but are certainly not limited to) the development of GeoSciMLOneGeologyOceans Data Interoperability Platform (ODIP)The Belmont Forum e-infrastructure and The Enabling FAIR Project.

Learn more about the persistent identifier IGSN, which Lesley has been instrumental in leading internationally.