Dr Chris Wood
Data Services Project Manager

Address
- Street
-
Bayes Centre
47 Potterrow - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9BT
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
- Committee member on the Challenger Society Marine Data Science Special Interest Group (https://www.challenger-society.org.uk/marine_science_data_management)
- Panel member on the MEDIN Data Portal advisory group (https://www.medin.org.uk)
Postgraduate teaching
I'm the current module coordinator for the MSc module "Fundamentals of Data Management" - although primarily aimed at 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 Programming Skills.
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
Ruiwen Xin (MSc in HPC with Data Science; 2021)
Xinyu Liu (MSc in HPC with Data Science, 2021)
Xiaoyan Ma (MSc in HPC with Data Science, 2020)
Di Liu (MSc in HPC with Data Science, 2020)
Jiarui Lei (MSc in HPC with Data Science, 2020)
Yeow Tong Yeo (MSc in HPC with Data Science; 2019)
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)
-
pyNMMSO, a python implementation of the Niching Migratory Multi-Swarm Optimiser
Research output: › Software (Published) -
Investigating Deep Learning Approaches for Robust Zooplankton Identification
Research output: Contribution to Conference › Paper (Published) -
Exposing the SeaDataNet metadata catalogues via SPARQL endpoints
(1 page)
Research output: › Conference contribution (Published) -
Why should we expose metadata catalogues via SPARQL endpoints?
(1 page)
Research output: Contribution to Conference › Conference contribution (Published) -
Improving the Exposure and Distribution of Marine Data through a Standards-Based Linked-Data Approach
Research output: Contribution to Conference › Paper (Published) -
Development of Linked Data Services to Support Widespread Exposure of Data
(3 pages)
Research output: › Conference contribution (Published) -
Refinement of atomic models in high resolution EM reconstructions using Flex-EM and local assessment
(8 pages)
In:
Methods, vol. 100, pp. 42-49
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymeth.2016.03.007
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Using a linked data approach to aid development of a metadata portal to support Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) implementation
(1 page)
Research output: Contribution to Conference › Conference contribution (Published) -
Collaborative computational project for electron cryo-microscopy
(4 pages)
In:
Acta Crystallographica Section D: Biological Crystallography, vol. 71, pp. 123-126
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1107/S1399004714018070
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Modelling macronutrients in shelf sea sediments: fitting model output to experimental data using a genetic algorithm
(12 pages)
In:
Journal of soils and sediments, vol. 14, pp. 218-229
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-013-0793-0
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
- 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)