Dr Chris Wood

Data Services Project Manager

Biography

Background

Following a degree in Marine Chemistry at the University of Wales, Bangor, I completed an MSc in Chemoinformatics at the University of Sheffield and a PhD in the School of Ocean & Earth Sciences at the University of Southampton, where I modelled nutrient cycling and early diagenesis in the sediments of shelf sea environments. I then spent a few years working in scientific software development, firstly at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (where I primarily concentrated on software for cryo-electron microscopy) and then at the British Oceanographic Data Centre before joining EPCC at the University of Edinburgh as a Data Science Applications Consultant in July 2018. I was promoted to my current role in December 2021.

Qualifications

BSc (Hons); University of Wales, Bangor

MSc; University of Sheffield

PhD; University of Southampton

Responsibilities & affiliations

Postgraduate teaching

I'm an Associate Fellow of Advance HE (AFHEA). 

I'm the current module coordinator for the MSc module "Fundamentals of Data Management"; although it is primarily aimed at students on the EPCC MSc programmes in "High Performance Computing" and "High Performance Computing with Data Science", it is open to students across the College of Science and Engineering. Previously, I was the module coordinator for online instance of Programming Skills; I still lecture on the on-campus instance of this module.

I have also been involved in lecturing on modules in "Software Development" and "Data Analytics with HPC".

From 2019 to 2022 I was a Personal Tutor for students on MSc programmes in "High Performance Computing", "High Performance Computing with Data Science", and "Data Science, Technology, and Innovation"

I also supervise a couple of MSc projects most years for the MSc programme in HPC with Data Science that EPCC runs, normally in the field of Data Engineering / Management (particularly related to technologies around linked data), or Machine Learning with a focus on environmental data.

 

Past MSc student projects supervised

Xirui Xie (MSc in HPC with Data Science; 2023)

Chenwei Jiang (MSc in HPC; 2022); co-supervised with Julien Sindt (EPCC) and Valentina Erastova (School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh)

Wei Aijia (MSc in HPC with Data Science; 2022)

Miao Yi (MSc in HPC with Data Science; 2022); co-supervised with Caoimhín Laoide-Kemp (EPCC) and Daniel Barker (School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh)

Ruiwen Xin (MSc in HPC with Data Science; 2021)

Xinyu Liu (MSc in HPC with Data Science, 2021); co-supervised with  Adam Carter (EPCC) and Pierre Hélaouët (Marine Biological Association)

Xiaoyan Ma (MSc in HPC with Data Science, 2020); co-supervised with  Adam Carter (EPCC) and Graeme Duncan (Joint Nature Conservation Committee)

Di Liu (MSc in HPC with Data Science, 2020); co-supervised with Adam Carter (EPCC) and George Graham, Marine Biological Association

Jiarui Lei (MSc in HPC with Data Science, 2020); co-supervised with Adam Carter (EPCC) and George Graham, Marine Biological Association

Yeow Tong Yeo (MSc in HPC with Data Science; 2019); co-supervised with Adam Carter (EPCC) and George Graham, Marine Biological Association

 

 

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Project activity

My current main activity is as the technical lead and service manager of the Research Data Scotland (meta-)data portal: https://find.researchdata.scot. We're working with a range of Scottish public sector organisations to transform the access to and use of Scottish data for research in the public good. We're using an open-source data catalogue framework (CKAN) and a metadata schema based on DCAT to ensure the data follows the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) philosophy.

Previous projects, roles, and responsibilities

  • "Containerisation of NEMO embedded in Singularity": testing the efficiency of Singularity containers by compiling a relatively complex ocean circulation model, and comparing the runtimes relative to bare-metal runs
  • Tomorrow's Cities: Data Management advice for the Tomorrow's Cities project (https://www.tomorrowscities.org)
  • Developer on the PyNMSSO project (https://github.com/EPCCed/pynmmso/wiki)
  • ARCHER / Cirrus Service Desk support
  • Developer on the ADAPT-Support project
  • Developer / researcher on DARE (DARE: Delivering Agile Research Excellence on European e-Infrastructures)

 

  • I'm a qualified Data and Software Carpentries instructor (https://carpentries.org/)
  • I've taught on a range of courses funded under the ARCHER and ARCHER2 programmes (e.g. Scientific Python; introductory programming; git; bash)
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