CODATA 2015

Proceedings
Table of Contents

Keynote Speakers

Invited Cross-Cutting Themes

CODATA 2015

Physical Science Data

Biological Science Data

Earth and Environmental Data

Behavioral and Social Science Data

Informatics and Technology

Data Science

Technical Demonstrations

Large Data Projects

Poster Sessions

Public Lectures

Program at a Glance

List of Participants
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Conference Sponsors

About the CODATA 2002 Conference

If we were to start from scratch today to design a quality-controlled archive and distribution system for scientific and technical information, it could take a very different form from what has evolved in the past decade from pre-existing print infrastructure. Ultimately, we might expect some form of global knowledge network for research communications. Over the next decade, there are many technical and non-technical issues to address along the way, everything from identifying optimal formats and protocols for rendering, indexing, linking, querying, accessing, mining, and transmitting the information, to identifying sociological, legal, financial, and political obstacles to realization of ideal systems. What near-term advances can we expect in automated classification systems, authoring tools, and next-generation document formats to facilitate efficient datamining and long-term archival stability? How will the information be authenticated and quality controlled? What differences should be expected in the realization of these systems for different scientific research fields? What is the proper role of governments and their funding agencies in this enterprise, and what might be the role of suitably configured professional societies? These and related questions will be considered in light of recent trends.

2. The role of scientific data in a complex world
Werner Martienssen
Physikalisches Institut der Universitaet, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Physicists try to understand and to describe the world in terms of natural laws. These laws cover two quite different approaches in physics. First, the laws show up a mathematical structure, which in general is understood in terms of first principles, of geometrical relations and of symmetry arguments. Second, the laws contain data which are characteristic for the specific properties of the phenomena and objects. Insight into the mathematical structure aims at an understanding of the world in ever more universally applicable terms. Insight into the data shows up the magnificent diversity of the world's materials and ist behavior Whereas the description of the world in terms of a unified theory one day might be reduced to only one set of equations, the amount of data necessary to describe the phenomena of the world in their full complexity seems to be open-ended.

A unified theory has not been formulated up to now; nor can we say that our knowledge about the data would be perfect in any sense, Much has to be done, still. But being asked for, where do we expect to be in data physics and chemistry in ten to fifteen years, my answer is: We -hopefully - will be able to merge the two approaches of physics. On the basis of our understanding of Materials Science and by using the methods of computational physics we will make use both of the natural laws as well as of the complete set of known data in order to modulate, to study and to generate new materials, new properties end new phenomena.

3. Life Sciences Research in 2015
David Y. Thomas, Biochemistry Department, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Much of the spectacular progress of life sciences research in the past 30 years has come from the application of molecular biology employing a reductionist approach with single genes, often studied in simple organisms. Now from the technologies of genomics and proteomics, scientists are deluged with increasing amounts, varieties and quality of data. The challenge is how life sciences researchers will use the data output of discovery science to formulate questions and experiments for their research and turn this into knowledge. What are the important questions? We now have the capability to answer at a profound level major biological problems of how genes function, how development of organisms is controlled, and how populations interact at the cellular, organismal and population levels. What data and what tools are needed? What skills and training will be needed for the next generation of life sciences researchers? I will discuss some of the initiatives that are planned or now underway to address these problems.